The Tale of Leaf and Sand
by shikamaru1710
Summary: This story picks up during the events of Naruto: Shippuuden and details the strengthening of the alliance between Leaf and Sand. Some violence and adult themes. NaruxHina, NejixTen, ShikaxTem, others still to be decided.
1. Gaara's Rescue

A/N: Well, this is my first Naruto fanfic. Hope you like it. Give me any suggestions you think would help.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, wish I did, but no dice.

Gaara's Rescue

Pain. Pain was Gaara's world. Every inch of his body was in absolute agony. But, it was lessening. Even as the pain was becoming more intense, it was lessening. The sounds of the people in the cave talking were becoming fainter and fainter. There were no more smells, there was simply less of the world. He could only see through his mind's eye now, and in his mind's eye he was simply floating in the middle of blindingly white space. Slowly, an image materialized before him, it was him, but younger.

"Was it worth it?" The younger version asked. "You gave your life to protect the people who hated you for so many years. Now your existence means nothing."

Gaara simply smiled. "You're wrong. My existence means more than it ever could have if I had stayed on your path." The Kazekage smiled even broader. "I mean something to everyone in that village. They finally respected me."

The light around him only kept getting brighter, it was moving to swallow him up. This was it. Then, when the pain had finally gone, it slammed back into him. The pain seemed to sear him. Then, the world became real again. He could hear voices and falling rocks. He could feel his body as it impacted the ground.

"Gaara!"

That voice, Gaara recognized it. How could he not, it was the voice that had saved him from himself. That had driven him down the path he had chosen. It was the voice of Naruto Uzumaki. He tried to speak, but found himself too drained to do so. All he could manage was a weak mumble.

"He's alive," Naruto yelled, ready to run forward to Gaara's aid.

"Naruto, wait..." Kakashi yelled. He grabbed hold of Naruto's shoulder before he could move. "We're going to help him, but we need a plan," he said, calmly.

"Fine."

Deidra and Sasori stood on the other side of Gaara. Sasori looked extremely displeased, but Deidra actually had a smile on his face.

"Well, it looks like we'll get to take care of Itachi's charge as well as ours Sasori," he said in a genuinely delighted voice.

Sasori didn't even acknowledge him. He just stared at the four ninja facing him. "Now we are behind schedule, I don't see why you are happy. We're going to have to fight them before we can begin the extraction again. Since the demon has fully returned to his body it will take another three days to extract it."

Kakashi surveyed the two for a moment as he began coming up with a plan of action. It would definitely be a boon if they could get Gaara into the fight. Kakashi moved toward the center, keeping a close eye on Naruto. "Sakura, do you think you can give Gaara a chakra jump? We'll cover you."

"Hai."

"Chiyo," he turned to the diminutive, old sand ninja, "Go ahead and get your puppets out. You and I are going to attack those two while Naruto covers Sakura directly." Kakashi was making sure to keep his voice at a level where the two Akatsuki members wouldn't be able to hear him as well. "Naruto, I need you to make about ten shadow clones. Cover any attack on Sakura by using one of your clones to absorb it. But don't let their number fall below ten."

"Right. Shadow clone jutsu!" Naruto yelled while crossing his hands. The eleven Narutos ran to take up a position in front of Sakura.

As this was happening, Chiyo pulled out two scrolls from behind her back. She took as small bite out of her finger and smeared some of the blood down the scrolls as she unfurled them. Two puppets appeared in the cloud of smoke. One was a red haired man wielding a kunai whip, the other a black haired woman wielding a katana.

Kakashi moved back out from the center so that he could get a clear aim at Deidara. The man was staring at them with a smile on his face. He reached his remaining arm into the satchel at his side, just what Kakashi was waiting for. "Go!" He yelled. "Fireball jutsu," he yelled after completing his speed signing. A massive fireball erupted from his mouth toward Deidara. Simultaneously, Chiyo's puppets launched an attack on Sasori from both sides.

Naruto and his clones sprinted forward under the cover of the two attacks. He and the clones in the middle jumped over the still unmoving Gaara. Deidara and Sasori recovered quickly from the initial attack and prepared to counter. Naruto watched as Deidara threw out two clay birds that quickly grew and targeted both himself and Kakashi. Simultaneously, Sasori unleased an attack using poisoned needles. Naruto moved his clones to intercept both attacks and quickly set to work making more clones.

As the room erupted in battle, Sakura knelt down next to Gaara. She had done a chakra jump once before in practice. The problem was that they were hard and dangerous. She concentrated her chakra in her eyes for a moment in order to decide how much chakra was needed to jump Gaara's network. Using precise control, she gathered chakra in her hands and placed them on Gaara's chest. "Revitalization jutsu," she yelled as she pushed the chakra from her hands and into Gaara. She watched as his body heaved off the ground in reaction to the chakra. It took a few moments, but he slowly began to move and within moments his chakra flow was at normal levels.

Chiyo expertly maneuvered her fingers as she sent another attack toward her grandson. His tail was flying around in random directions. She let go an attack with the kunai whip, wrapping it around Sasori's tail. She then rotated the puppet and flung Sasori toward his explosives-wielding associate.

11111111111111

Neji was becoming worried as his battle with his doppegänger continued. He was pretty sure that Lee was on to something with his comment about mirrors. Neji considered this during a lull in the fighting. _"There are two ways to get rid of a mirror image, get rid of the mirror or get rid of the image," _he thought to himself. So, since he didn't plan on committing seppuku that left one option. "There's got to be something generating these clones," he said into his transmitter.

"But what could it be?" Lee asked.

"Well, when did they appear?" Neji asked.

"Right after we removed the seals," Tenten commented.

"Maybe we have to destroy the seal in order to kill the clones," Gai said. "They counter us at every turn, but unfortunately they aren't running out of breath."

Neji quickly scanned the area using his Byakugan. The clone was closer to the seal than he was. "Everyone, catch your breath. I'm going to test our theory." Neji gathered his chakra for his second most powerful attack. He ran at his clone, who had also gathered the chakra for the attack. He braced for the impact he delivered his attack. "Gentle Fist Technique: Chakra Explosion." The two balls of chakra crashed into each other, blowing the combatants backwards. Neji quickly drew a kunai from his pouch and attached an explosive note to it. He expertly launched the kunai at the seal. He landed unceremoniously and skidded a few feet before he stopped. He looked up when he heard the explosion. His clone, who was already on his feet, froze in place and a moment later dissolved. "It worked," he said into his microphone. He managed to get slowly to his feet and began walking back toward the cave.

"Neji... I need help." Lee said. "I've moved away from my note. I don't know where it is."

Neji used what little was left in his reserves to activate his Byakugan. "It's behind you Lee. About ten feet at the foot of the tree." Before the others asked, he located their too and relayed the information.

111111111111

Things had gotten quite a bit worse in the past few minutes for Naruto. Kakashi was currently digging himself out from under some rocks, Sakura and Chiyo had their hands full with Sasori, and Naruto had run out of clones during Deidra's last attack. "Shadow..."

"Too late," Deidra said smirking. He sent a small army of clay grasshoppers flying at Naruto.

This was not good. Naruto crossed his arms in front of himself to brace for the impact, but it never came. Naruto watched as a wall of sand appeared in front of him, absorbing the attack. "Are you OK?" Gaara asked in his typical quiet voice.

"Yeah," Naruto said. "Now let's kick this guy's sorry ass! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto produced twenty copies of himself and began charging at Deidra. He was going to make him pay for attacking Gaara.

Gaara simply stood with a passive look on his face. "Sand Technique: Sand Missiles," he said. "The sand that was now floating around him formed into balls and launched themselves at Deidra. Naturally, the Akatsuki member dodged them, but that wasn't the point. Naruto was now in range of the smirking bastard.

"Rasengan!" Two of the Narutos yelled as they closed on Deidra from opposite sides. He leaped into the air just to have his face smashed in by an axe kick which sent him right into the path of the double Rasengan attack. He managed to recover just enough to knock one of the Narutos off track, but took the other attack straight to the gut and went flying into the wall.

Gaara, still looking passive, launched another sand missile attack just as the Deidra was about to get up. One of the missiles, which where as hard as steel, slammed into the man's head. His neck snapped all the way back, killing him instantly.

Sasori had been troubled by how things were developing even before the second Jinchuuriki joined the battle. Together, Sakura and Chiyo had managed to destroy his outer puppet shell. Though he was now using his powerful Kazekage puppet, it was a hopeless battle. One Jinchuuriki fighting against you was doable, two was a force of nature. He didn't even waste his time trying to convince Deidra to join him in fleeing. His associate was far too proud and convinced of his own superiority to run. Sasori called upon the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand Technique and used it to clog Chiyo's puppets and launch an attack on Sakura. He the performed a substitution with a chunk of rock at the opening of the cave and drew his puppet along with him before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

"Damn it!" Naruto yelled, he punched the air just to try to rid himself of some of his fury. "That bastard ran away."

"Don't worry," Gaara said in a satisfied voice. "We got the one that defeated me the first time."

"Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura yelled, ignoring the other two boys and running to the pile of rocks Kakashi had been buried under. She began heaving the boulders aside to help her teacher get out.

When Sakura finally reached him, Kakashi was wearing what passed for a smile from him. "Thank you, Sakura. Is everyone alright?"

"Yes sensei, but one of them escaped."

"Yeah, that puppet creep ran."

"I should have expected that. Sasori, for all his faults, is still rather humble," Chiyo said. "It's why he doesn't like to keep people waiting. Because of this, he also doesn't overestimate his own skills. I should have done more to prevent an escape."

"There's no need to blame yourself, Chiyo," Kakashi said. He then tapped his microphone. "Team Gai, anyone, come in?"

"Kakashi," said the voice of Maito Gai. "I'm glad to hear my rival has made it through the battle so that we may continue our contests."

Kakashi gave his typical answer to Gai. "Were you saying something? Bit hard to hear." On the other side he could hear Gai grumbling. "Is your team OK?"

"Everyone is just fine. We're a bit worn out, but nothing serious."

"Meet us back at the entrance to the cave. Our mission is partly accomplished. We need to return the Kazekage to the Hidden Sand Village now."

"Roger Kakashi! Team Gai, double-time back to the cave entrance."

"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee yelled. The other two simply grumbled and said they would make their way back as soon as possible.

Kakashi then nicked his thumb and slammed his hand to the ground. The cloud of smoke that accompanies a summoning appeared and when it cleared Pakkun and two of Kakashi's other dogs appeared. "Pakkun, I need you to tell the Hokage that we have rescued the Kazekage and that we are going to escort him back to the Hidden Sand Village."

"OK, but what are these other two here for?"

"They're meant to protect you if you need it." Kakashi watched as the dogs quickly hopped up the canyon wall and into the trees. "Chiyo, do you have anymore of those birds that you could use to send a message. I'm pretty sure that your village would like to know its leader is safe."

111111111111

_3 Days Earlier_

Hinata walked at the lead of Team Kurenai. They'd just arrived back from their most recent message, tracking a missing-nin from the Village Hidden in the clouds. As they approached home, they'd noticed an increased number of gate guards.

"Looks like something is wrong," Kurenai said.

"Damn it, I was planning on taking some time to relax. She promised us..." Kiba complained and Akamaru barked in agreement.

"Well, maybe we'll be given an important mission if something is wrong," Hinata said hopefully.

Kurenai smiled at her student. Hinata had changed a lot. It all seemed to start during the mission her team and Naruto had undertaken to find a bikochu. Though the mission had failed, because of Naruto, Hinata had experienced a great boost in confidence. Since then, she had redoubled her training efforts. With the help of Neji, and eventually her father, Hinata had become a respectable ninja.

As they reached the gate, Kurenai walked up to the gate guards. "Team Kurenai reporting in."

"Good," the guard said. "Tsunade has asked that you report directly to her office."

"Understood."

Just before they could walk off, the guard yelled at them to hold up. "Oh, almost forgot," he said to the three Chunin, "Your friend Naruto is back."

The three responded in different ways. Shino simply nodded, Hinata blushed, the mention of Naruto still did that to her, and Kiba smiled, "Cool. Bet he's got plenty of interesting stories."

"Come on you three, we need to get to the Hokage's office immediately."

111111111111

Tsunade looked up from her papers when she heard a knock on the door. Shizune opened the door and lead team Kurenai into the room. _"Good,"_ she though, _"We need people with their skills right now."_ She waited for them to finish filing in and the door to be shut before she began. "We are at Level 2 Crisis Level right now. The Kazekage has been kidnapped by the Akatsuki. I've sent Team Kakashi and Team Gai to aid in his rescue..."

"So you reformed Kakashi's team?" Kurenai asked.

"Yes. Now as I was saying, we are worried that some of the other nations may take this opportunity to launch attacks not only on the Land of Wind, but on us as well. Our strong alliance is well known, and they undoubtedly know that we will have sent ninja to our allies aid. I am sending your team to Post 8 where you'll help keep an eye on our border with the Land of Sound. This is an A-rank mission and I will need you to depart immediately."

"You can count on us," Kurenai said. "Team, you have ten minutes to resupply. Hinata, take care of gathering some food. Kiba, make sure we are fully stocked with weapons. Shino, take care of water. Move."

111111111111

_Present Day_

Under the "whips" of Gai and Lee, the two teams were keeping up a grueling pace on their return to the village. Naruto spent much of his time questioning Gaara about his responsibilities as Kazekage, surprisingly, Gaara was rather forthcoming with answers. "So, how do you decide which missions to take?"

Gaara pondered the question for moment. "I consider our alliances and our need to appear strong and make my decisions based on that."

"Hmmm," Naruto said thoughtfully. As he considered his next question, he surveyed their group. As always, Kakashi had his head buried in one of Jiraiya's books. Sakura and Chiyo were discussing the merits of certain ingredients in poisons, Neji and Tenten were having a hushed conversation and Lee and Gai were now competing to see who could make the most jumps on their hands.

"That was an impressive attack against Deidra. The Rasengan?" Gaara said.

Naruto turned and smiled. "Jiraiya taught it to me. He made me work on combinations with my clones as part of my training."

"You have become quite strong, Naruto." With that Gaara returned to his inner musings.

111111111111

Pandemonium broke out when they entered the village. People lined the streets to cheer their Kazekage's return and his rescuers. Lee and Gai used the opportunity to unleash the "nice-guy pose" on the villagers. Naruto engaged in his normal celebration, saying things like, "What else would you expect from the future Hokage?" The rest remained relatively silent.

On entering the Kazekage's tower, Sakura made for the hospital to check on Kankuro. Naruto ran after her as she did. "Sakura..."

Sakura turned to face her teammate, she was pretty sure what was about to happen. She had to say, she regretted what her answer would be.

"Would you like to go get some ramen? Just us two?" Naruto clearly tried to put on his most endearing face."

"No..." She said. She made sure not to put the harsh edge she used to on her rejection.

"Why not?"

"You know why..." She said, leaving it at that.

Naruto simply sighed. In the old days, he would have started yelling and possibly chased after her until she hit him on the head. He turned and saw Lee standing there behind him.

"I know how you feel," he said, "For I too am in love with Sakura, but alas can not capture her heart."

111111111111

"That was rather impressive how you figured out the seals Neji," Tenten said from across the table.

"Well, I did kind of cheat. I was able to see that there were two sides to the seal. Plus, Lee inadvertently hit on what was happening," Neji replied.

Tenten couldn't help smiling. Neji had changed a lot in the past few years. He had gone from an egotistical douche, to a decent human being. "Well, it was still a good job."

"Here's your bill," the waiter said as he arrived at the table. He handed the bill to Neji.

"I told you I was going to pay for my own dinner," Tenten said, frustrated.

"Don't worry, anyway I make more as a Jounin. Just call it a gift."

"Fine," she said, still putting on a frustrated face.

The two walked back to the Kazekage's tower in silence. Tenten spent her time casting nervous glances at Neji. He'd been the one to propose dinner, though he didn't make it seem like it was a date. Though, it would be like Neji to make assumptions. She was surprised when she felt him grab hold of her hand. Tenten simply smiled, it was a date. In his own way, Neji was being romantic.

When they reached the tower, where Gaara had insisted that they stay, Neji walked Tenten to her room. She opened the door to the room she was sharing with Sakura to say goodbye. To her surprise, Neji bent down and gave her a short kiss on the lips.

"Thank you for coming to dinner with me," he said as he turned to walk to his room.

Tenten rushed into her room and closed the door. Inside she started doing a happy dance and running her fingers over her lips.

"What are you all worked up about?" Sakura asked.

"He kissed me!" She yelled, ecstatically.

"He did?" Sakura asked, joining Tenten in her happy dance.

The two spent a few minutes jumping up and down. Once they'd calmed down, Tenten related the whole night to her fellow kunoichi.

"Well, its not exactly what most people would call romantic," Sakura commented. "But it is Neji we're talking about." Honestly, now that she thought about it, a date with Sasuke would likely be the same. "Well, we should get to sleep," Sakura said.

"Yeah," Tenten said, her voice still dreamy.

111111111111

The next morning Kakashi and Gai roused their charges early. "The quicker we get on the road the sooner we'll be back to our wonderful village," Gai said, ending with his patented smile.

Gaara, Kankuro and Chiyo walked the Leaf ninjas to the gate of the village. Before they left, Gaara pulled Naruto aside. "Thank you for everything. This is the second time you've saved me."

"No problem, just think of it as two you owe me," Naruto said, in true Naruto fashion.

Gaara just seemed to smile as Naruto turned around. Though, he did feel bad for him, it appeared Sakura was preparing to yell at him for how he handled the situation.


	2. Battening Down

Battening Down

Tsunade sat nervously at her desk. It had been six days since Team Kakashi had left for the Sand Village. She hadn't received any word yet and it was making her nervous. The report the Sand elders had sent her said only two people had participated in the attack on their village. The first, the one who took down the Kazekage, was Deidara, an S-class criminal. The second was Sasori of the Red Sand, likely the greatest puppeteer of all time. She scanned the report for the hundredth time, then turned to the information Jiraiya had collected, none of it was good news. She could only hope that she hadn't sent her two teams right into the Akatsuki's arms.

Tsunade was startled out of her thoughts when Tonton jumped into her lap. The pig had a tendency to sense her mood and would come to comfort her when she needed it. She worked to harden her resolve as she sat there petting the pig. It had been her only decision, their allies had needed help and they had provided it. Not all decisions you made as Hokage were easy. She turned around when she heard a scratching on the window. Her relief was almost palpable when she turned to see Pakkun sitting outsider her window with two more of Kakashi's ninken. She rushed to the window, forcing Tonton to run off her lap, squealing. The small dog hopped inside while the other two disappeared. "Report!"

"Mission accomplished, Hokage. Gaara was successfully rescued by our teams, they were about to escort them back when Kakashi sent me. They should have arrived back in the Sand Village by now. They killed Deidara in the process of the rescue and everyone seemed fine."

"_What a relief," _she thought. "Thank you for the report. That will be all." She took a moment to let the relief fully sink in. "Shizune!"

"Yes?" Shizune asked as she opened the door.

"Go get Jiraiya... and send orders for Team Kurenai to return home for some rest." Tsunade paused for a moment. "Take Tonton with you and start at the hot springs."

222222222222

Jiraiya rubbed his face as he walked into the Hokage's tower. _"Damn pig! I was getting some really good research done."_ He would have continued grumbling to himself, but he knew that Tsunade would only call him for a good reason. He followed Shizune up to Tsunade's office and walked in behind her.

"Was I right?" She asked Shizune.

Shizune simply nodded in response.

"Jiraiya, as much as it pains me to say this, I need your help. As you know, our numbers have increased since Orochimaru's attack," Tsunade joined Jiraiya in sneering at the name of their former teammate. They both wanted another chance to thin out the number of Sanin. "But they haven't improved enough. I'm going to need to take some of our more experience jounin away from training and put them on combat teams. This being said, I'll need you to oversee training the chuunin."

"OK," Jiraiya said. He smiled when he saw a surprised look on Tsunade's face. "You were expecting some resistance?"

"Truthfully, yes. To help you, I'm going to assign you an assistant, Iruka. He just passed the Jonin test and he has some experience with the current chuunin. Neither of you will be team leaders, but they will follow your orders while they're not away on a mission... and naturally, Naruto will be training with them."

"What do you want me to work on?"

"Team and single combat. You need to force them to learn jounin level techniques. Right now three of the four teams I plan on reworking are out on missions. They should all be back in about three days. When that happens, you're job will begin. I'll let Iruka know when he's done with his class."

222222222222

Kankuro hammered the final nail home on his new puppet. He'd spent three full days working in the puppet workshop, ever since he'd finished showing the Leaf ninja off. He looked carefully over the human-sized puppet. He flicked his fingers to attach chakra strings to the puppet. He drew out the chakra sword he had given it and pulsed more of his chakra through the strings to activate it. He then went over a few basic maneuvers to ensure that there weren't any problems with the reinforced joints he had added. "Great, now all you need is a name." He thought back to his original puppet and decided to make this one's name a tribute to it. "You're going to be named eagle."

"Do you think it will live up to such a powerful name?"

Kankuro turned with a start. He released his breath a bit when he noticed it was simply Chiyo. "Elder Chiyo, I didn't hear you come in."

"Your creation does look quite impressive. Your brother told me I could find you here. He said you'd only come out to eat. It appears he wasn't lying," she said motioning to a stack of plates and ramen cups.

"I had more important things to take care of. A puppeteer isn't much of a puppeteer without any puppets."

"Too true. How many new ones are you planning on making?" She asked.

"Don't know just yet, in practices I've controlled five at once. With Sasori out there, I think I'll make at least five."

"Good, I would like to help you, if you don't mind. I would also like to give you something. Come with me."

Kankuro fell into step behind Chiyo. For an old woman, she was still rather quick. They stepped out of the workshop and onto the puppet training field. "I have something I want to show you. I had sworn that I would never use this again, and that its secret would die with me. But times have changed and I can't allow something this powerful to go to waste." Chiyo pulled out a scroll from the satchel she held at her side. She flicked the scroll open in front of her, as she did, ten puppets began to materialize.

Kankuro stood in awe. He'd heard of this technique. "That's the White Secret Technique," he said in awe. "I had heard you destroyed those puppets."

"You heard what I wanted everyone to believe," she said. "I am willing to teach you to use these puppets, but you must earn it. And you must promise only to use them as a last resort."

Kankuro stood up as tall as he could and put on his most official face. "I will earn the right to use these puppets and will only use them as a last resort," he said.

"Good, now I do believe we have four more puppets to design," Chiyo said, as she ended the technique.

222222222222

Naruto strolled down the street towards his house. He was disappointed when he had arrived home, he had expected people to be lining the streets, ready to praise the two teams. Instead, they had simply headed straight to the Hokage's office where they had been debriefed and paid. Tsunade had also informed the three chuunin and himself to report to the training field at the Academy the next morning. By this point, he had pretty much tuned out everything around him. He was still hurting a bit from Sakura's latest rejection. It was finally hitting him that it just wasn't going to work out. _"I guess girls are different than jutsus, _he thought a bit sadly. It was at this time that he walked past Ichiraku. _"Well, nothing better to cheer me up than some ramen."_ Naruto sprinted up to the stand and pulled out his newly bloated frog wallet.

"Well, if it isn't my best customer? The usual?" Teuchi asked.

"You bet ya, old man. I just got paid for saving the Kazekage!"

"Wow! Well here you go," he said placing a bowl in front of Naruto.

Naruto eagerly began downing the ramen. There really wasn't anything like ramen to cheer him up. He was only distracted from his eating when he heard the old man yell to someone.

"Hey Hinata," Teuchi yelled. "Haven't seen you in a while. Why don't you come have a bowl of ramen?"

"Thank you," she said and walked up to the ramen stand, she hadn't noticed Naruto sitting there.

"Hey Hinata," Naruto said as she reached the bar.

Hinata turned with a start. _"Naruto?!"_ "H-hi N-Naruto," she said and promptly fainted.

Naruto moved as quickly as he could, making sure she didn't hit her head. He sat her in a chair and she slowly came around. "Are you OK?"

"Y-yes, I'm f-fine," she said nervously.

"How's it going?" Naruto asked jovially. "I haven't seen you since I got back."

"I-I'm doing g-great. H-how are you?"

"Better than ever. The Pervy Sage taught me a bunch. And I just helped save the Kazekage. Now he'll owe me one when I become Hokage," Naruto said brightly.

"D-did you spend the whole time t-training?"

"Nah, we took on some missions every so often, had to make money somehow. I even got to go on an S-ranked mission!"

"W-what?!" Hinata exclaimed. _"Maybe those rumors that Kiba had told her about were true."_

"Yeah, it was great."

Hinata started tottering in her seat.

222222222222

Kurenai watched the events with her protégé unfold. She needed to do something before Hinata completely lost it. "Hinata," she said walking up to the stand, "Can I speak with you for a minute?"

"Yes," she said as she got up. She walked nervously over to Kurenai. "Hello Kurenai-sensei."

"First of all, I told you all to stop calling me sensei, it makes me feel old."

"Sorry."

"Tomorrow you're to report to the Academy training field with the rest of the chuunin. I've been assigned to a new team," she said. "Now that I'm not your sensei, I want to give you some advice." Kurenai worked to put on a big sister smile. "You faced down an A-rank missing jounin and now you're over there floundering in front of that knuckle-head."

"You saw?" Hinata asked, shocked. "And how did you know?"

"Well, other than that knuckle-head, pretty much everyone knows. Now go back over there and act like the Hinata I saw take down a jonin."

Hinata worked on composing herself as she walked back to the ramen stand. _"Kurenai is right,"_ she thought to herself. _"I got rid of the old, scared Hinata a long time ago."_

Naruto was on his third bowl of ramen when Hinata joined him again. When he looked up he was a bit surprised, it was like a different person was sitting next to him. She wasn't swaying back and forth or nervously fidgeting anymore. "What did your teacher want?" Naruto asked.

"She was just telling me that she's been reassigned and that I'm supposed to report to the Academy training field tomorrow morning."

"Cool, I'm supposed to be there too. Maybe it will be some kind of cool mission."

"Heh, you want to talk about cool, you should hear some of the stories Hinata has," Teuchi said. "Her team is one of the premier tracking teams in the village. You should tell him about that Jounin."

"Huh?"

"Yeah, my team had to track down an A-rank missing ninja. Well, we split up to try to cover some more area. Well, I found him and I was the one to take him down," Hinata said. She smiled when she saw the look of awe on Naruto's face.

It took Naruto a minute to get over his awe of the story. He chuckled for moment, until he noticed a sad look on Hinata's face.

"Don't you believe me?" She asked.

"Yeah! You bet I do! I always knew you'd be a great ninja Hinata," he gave Lee and Gai's 'nice guy pose' as he said it.

Hinata smiled larger than she ever had before _"Naruto thinks I'm a great ninja!!"_ She started rummaging through her pants to find her wallet. "Well I have to be going," she said as she finally found it.

"Wait Hinata, I'll get your's for you," Naruto said. "Mind if I walk you home too, I want to hear more about the missions you've been going on."

"That would be great!" She said. She could hardly believe how her day had improved. Naruto was going to walk her home so he could hear about her missions.

Naruto quickly paid the old man and joined Hinata in heading toward the Hyuga Compound.

Kurenai watched the two walking down the street from atop a nearby building. _"Well, maybe she finally got through to that knuckle-head. Though, I still don't get what she sees in him."_

222222222222

Iruka stood, beaming, on the Academy practice field. He'd gotten there an hour early and watched as the chuunin slowly started to make their way to the field. Most recently appointed jounin were lucky to get a genin squad assigned to them, but he was getting to help with chuunin training. He smiled when he thought about how jealous the other recently appointed jounin had been. Now, it was a mere minute before they were supposed to begin and Jiraiya still wasn't there. Even Shikamaru was there, which was saying something.

As a minute to go stretched into five minutes late and on into ten, things started to become unruly.

"Come on, where is he?" Yelled Sakura.

"I knew this would be troublesome," whined Shikamaru.

"Probably off looking at girls," Naruto added.

"Just calm down everyone. We'll give him five more minutes and then if he's not here we'll just start without him," Iruka said.

No sooner had Iruka finished speaking than he heard a noise behind him. "The ladies tremble before my greatness and my enemies flee in panic. I am the controller of the summoning toads. I am Jiraiya... the legendary sanin."

"Ah shut up you old perv. Probably kept us waiting because you were peeping at some girls."

"You be quiet Naruto... you simply don't appreciate the amount of research that has to go into my great works of art!"

"Whatever you big old perv!"

"Guys, guys..." Iruka said.

"OK," Jiraiya said from behind him. "We've got a little business to take care of today before we get to training. I'm going to divide you into teams. Team 1: Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, Kiba and Shino, Naruto is team leader."

"What?" Sakura yelled.

Jiraiya proceeded without delay. "The rest of you are on Team 2, Shikamaru will be team leader. Now, we're going to Training Area 3 for a little exercise."

222222222222

Kankuro pulled hard on his chakra strings as five kunai flew toward him. A metal sphere appeared in front of him, disgorging a small appendage. The chakra sphere on the appendage activated, deflecting the kunai. The first appendage was joined by two bladed appendages and flew toward the target. The target jumped and weaved trying to dodge the oncoming puppet, but couldn't. Kankuro worked the strings expertly. Just before reaching the person, the chakra shield was disabled and the blades sliced into the target making it turn into a pile of sand.

"Thanks Gaara," Kankuro said.

"Those new puppets are rather impressive. What do you call the small one?" Gaara asked.

"Sphere. A lot of my new attacks are based on using it to shield my more powerful puppets."

"It seems your new puppets will be very powerful. I look forward to seeing them all." Gaara paused. "Now, we have a council meeting to attend. The Hokage has asked us to start setting up joint operations and I'll need your and Baki's help in convincing the council to do so."

"Does it have anything to do with hunting down the Akatsuki?"

"Yes, it does."

"Good, I just hope I'm the one who gets to take Sasori down."

222222222222

Naruto and his team stood on a tree just inside Training Area 3. Like the Forest of Death, it was an area of trees with a building in the middle. Inside was a scroll they were supposed to retrieve.

"So, what do you want to do?" Kiba asked.

"First we have to figure out where they are."

"Shino..." Sakura was about to say.

"No, they'll expect that. They may even have a way to guard against it." Naruto said. "I've got something though." He bit his thumb and slammed his hand to the ground, after a big puff of smoke, a very small toad appeared. The toad hopped into Naruto's hand, it was only about half the size of his palm. "Hey there Gamadeki."

"Hey!" The toad said, eagerly. "Got another job for me?"

"Yep, I'm going to need you to look around a building for me," he said as he put the toad back on the branch.

"You've got to be kidding me!" Sakura yelled.

Kiba and Shino just shared a significant glance. Hinata, though, managed to keep a hopeful look.

Naruto quickly went through some hand signs. "Toad Mind Synthesis!" He didn't stop, but kept going. "Toad Lightning Speed!" He then sat down cross legged. "Let's go Gamadeki!" The little toad rocketed off at insane speed.

"What did you just do?" Kiba asked.

"He's seeing through the toad's eyes," Shino said. "Rather impressive."

Now it was Kiba and Hinata's turn to share a look. Very little ever impressed Shino.

Naruto sat for a few minutes, not saying anything. He simply took in what the toad was seeing. Like it had previously, it passed throughout the tower undetected. Naruto got up smiling. "All right guys, listen up. I've got a plan." He hopped down to the ground and everyone followed him. He quickly drew a rough picture of the building. "Here's the building. That's Lee, Tenten, Shikamaru, Ino and Choji," he said pointing to some rocks. "Sakura, I'm going to need to to handle Tenten and Kiba, you're probably the only one fast enough to take on Lee. I don't think he'll use the Lotus any, but try to take him down quickly anyway.

"Don't worry, me and Akamaru will take him out," Kiba said. Akamaru barked in concurrence.

Hinata and Shino, you guys will be taking out Ino and Shikamaru respectively. You'll need to use ranged attacks. Getting close would be playing into their strengths. Which will leave Choji for me. Now..."

222222222222

"Jiraiya, don't you think it was a bit too harsh to put him up against Shikamaru?" Asuma asked.

"I have faith in the boy, but I'm inclined to agree with Asuma," Kakashi said.

"He beat you with Sakura's help, didn't he Kakashi?" Jiraiya asked rhetorically.

"Exactly," Gai said. "Plus Naruto has the spirit of youth!"

"Still, I don't even think the Hokage would take this bet," Asuma said.

"You'd be surprised," said a voice from behind them.

"Glad you could join us Tsunade. The test is set up as you instructed... more or less."

"Well, its your funeral," Tsunade responded. "Because I'm going to tell him it was a test afterward and that I'd wanted him matched against anyone but him."

"Well, I guess we'll see how it goes, because things are about to get interesting," Kurenai said.

Below the four jounin and two sanin all hell was about to break loose. Naruto's team, along with about twenty Naruto clones were descending on the tower.

222222222222

Shikamaru laughed as Naruto's clones were being slaughtered by his traps. _"That's just like Naruto, rush in without thinking."_ It would have been more comical had there not been enough clones to eliminate the entire perimeter defense. "Have you seen any of the others?"

"Not yet."

"OK, hold your positions."

A flurry of smoke grenades appeared in the clearing around the building, obscuring any view of what was going on. "Get ready," Shikamaru said, and triggered a set of explosions. The building began to rumble as the explosions went off. _"That's odd, it shouldn't have caused that much shaking."_ As the smoke cleared, a number of Narutos, as well as his team members could be seen making their way into the building. "Everyone get ready."

222222222222

Naruto sent a clone up through the hole in the floor. He and his team waited for a moment until they got the all clear. "Good work Kiba. Now, everyone knows what they're supposed to do, right?" Naruto stopped Shino before they all split up. "Thanks for the advice."

"No problem," Shino said.

Naruto sprinted off. He knew his clones had engaged Lee, Tenten and Choji by this point 

222222222222

"Too basic," Asuma said. "Shikamaru's got him right where he wants him."

"I don't know," Kakashi said. "I think he missed out on a little something. It has a bit of Shino's signature on it, but that's part of being the team leader."

"That explosion could be felt from here, there's no way it should have," Kurenai said. "Almost like Kiba..."

"Wow," Asuma said. "Gotta hand it to him. He's got Shikamaru falling into a trap."

222222222222

"Shikamaru, we have a problem," said Choji, over his transmitter. "I just destroyed a shadow clone that looked like Hinata."

"_Uh oh,"_ Shikamaru thought. "Everyone pull back. We're just fighting a bunch of clones. Now they had a problem. If they kept fighting the clones it would wear them out, but there was no way to tell which were clones and which were real. Speaking of which, where were the real members of Team 1. "Ino, come with me," Shikamaru said to Ino.

They ran down towards the bottom of the building. They were about to turn a corner when a swarm of bugs came flying around the corner and landed on Shikamaru. "Ino..."

Ino ducked and rolled she got up and formed her arms to do her mind transfer, but couldn't. Her arms fell limply at her side. She turned around to see Hinata standing deep in an alcove behind her. "How did you do that?"

"Its my special technique, Chakra Archery," she said. "I extend the chakra out of my fingers to launched a ranged attack."

"That's how she took down that A-rank jounin. His look was a bit similar to your's, except even more shocked," Shino said, as he walked up to Ino and Shikamaru. He reached out and disabled both of their transmitters.

222222222222

Kiba and Akamaru stared down Lee as they prepared for battle. He could hear the clang of Tenten's assorted weapons against the wall, telling him that she was successfully dodging all of the weapons-mistresses' attacks. "Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba made a quick sign with his hand, morphing his dog into a clone of himself. "Fang Over Fang!" The two went spinning toward Lee.

Lee worked hard at dodging the two incoming projectiles. This would have been easy had he not had to fight so many clones before this. He watched as the two reappeared in front of him. Lee watched as they came sprinting toward him again, this time one threw a smoke bomb. Lee waited until the two were spinning and sprung out of the smoke. He then spun and delivered an ax kick which actually managed to hit one of the Kibas. The other turned to see his downed comrade.

"Akamaru!" Kiba yelled. The dog appeared in a puff of smoke. "Damn it!" Kiba lunged forward again, launching an attack on Lee. Lee managed to dodge and knocked Kiba out with a kick square to the face.

222222222222

Sakura sprinted to the room with the scroll where she found Shino and Hinata waiting for her. She showed a few cuts from where Tenten had managed to hit her. But her training with Tsunade had allowed her to get in close enough to knock her fellow kunoichi out. "Any news on Naruto or Kiba?"

"Nothing yet," Hinata said.

As if on cue, Naruto entered the room. "Where's Kiba?"

"Don't know," said Sakura.

"OK, I need you guys to go ahead and take the scroll, I'll go look for him," Naruto said. He turned to leave as Shino grabbed the scroll.

"Wait!" Hinata said. "I'll come with you!"

"All right. You two," he said, looking at Shino and Sakura, "Go ahead and get the scroll out of here. We'll be along with Kiba and Akamaru in a few minutes. Let's go Hinata!" Naruto said, sprinting out of the room.

"We should probably start where he was supposed to have found Lee," Hinata said.

"Good idea. I need you to climb a little further above me so you can cover me in case we run into Lee or anyone else."

"Understood," Hinata said, leaping into the air.

Naruto sprinted ahead, soon finding all three of his targets.

"Naruto, I had a feeling that you would return to retrieve your fallen comrades. But honorable as your intentions, I will now defeat you."

"We'll see, Bushy-brow," Naruto said, returning Lee's smile. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Twenty new Narutos appeared around their creator. "Let's do this!" With that, the twenty-one Narutos launched themselves at Lee.

Lee started dispatching the clones as fast as he could, but he couldn't get them all and started taking hits. One of the Narutos managed a kick the knocked him up in the air. Lee watched as one, then another, repeated the kick, jumping off the shoulders of the last. A final one grabbed hold of Lee. "Hinata, now!"

Hinata had been watching with her Byakugan activated. She hadn't been able to anything so far, but when Naruto yelled she created chakra projections out of her hands and disabled Lee's arms and legs.

Naruto watched his clones catch Lee and disappear in a poof. He used one remaining clone to pick up Akamaru and began his retreat, Hinata close behind.

222222222222

"Wow!" Asuma said.

"So, I guess he passed," Kakashi said. The look in his eye suggested there was a smile under his mask.

"Yes, he did. I want you and Jiraiya to go tell him Kakashi. Though I'm sure everyone is fine, I'd like the rest of you to come with me to the building.

Jiraiya and Kakashi watched as Tsunade and the others headed off toward the building. They then hastily made their way to the appointed rally point for Team 1.

"Haha, great job Hinata. Great job everyone!" Naruto said, while doing a victory dance.

Sakura had Kiba coming around and Akamaru was soon up and about as well.

"Good job Naruto," said Kakashi from a nearby tree.

"Kakashi-sensai? What are you doing here?"

"Here, try this on kid," Jiraiya said, tossing Naruto a chuunin jacket. "We were testing you today, you passed."

"What? I thought you could only become a chuunin during the exam." Said Sakura.

"In most cases. Sometimes a special case like Naruto comes along. There was no reason to delay his promotion, so we gave him a test. Anyway, we need you all to progress as quickly as possible," Kakashi said.

"Woo-hoo!" Naruto yelled as he put the jacket on. "I'm one step closer to Hokage now!"

"Well, that's all for today," Jiraiya said. "Though, I want you guys to find out about any clan techniques you guys may have on the jounin level and come ready to start working on them tomorrow. Tomorrow the real training begins."


	3. The Real Training Begins

**A/N: Thanks to anyone reading. I decided I'd drop the ranking. I don't really think that the language I plan on using, the violence level or any sexual content really requires an R rating. I'd like to hear what you guys have to say, so please review.**

**Disclaimer: No, I don't own Naruto, I'm just borrowing from that universe to have some not for profit fun.**

The Real Training Begins

Shikamaru sulked all the way back to his house. _"I can't believe it. Naruto beat me. Yeah, he had Shino's help, but I got beat."_ This was incredibly troublesome to Shikamaru. His skills must be slipping or something. He walked past his apartment and headed for his house. He needed to talk to his dad anyway. Maybe he'd get the lazy ass to play a game of shogi with him to make sure his skills hadn't actually slipped. He pulled out his key and walked into the house. "Mom... Dad... I came to visit." He waited for a moment. "Well isn't this troublesome, they aren't here. Well, it would be troublesome if they were here."

Shikamaru walked into his dad's study. _"Funny that he calls this a study,"_ he thought. The room was covered in a layer of dust. Shikamaru walked over to were the family jutsu scroll was kept and retrieved it. He then walked over to his dad's desk and retrieved his hidden bottle of sake. He chuckled to himself, even if his dad caught him with it, he couldn't yell at him. Shikamaru then trudged out to the couch and sat down, placing the bottle of sake on the table next to him.

He looked over the scroll. _"For a clan jutsu scroll, there really isn't much. I guess we've just counted on our intelligence I've probably learned more clan secrets playing shogi with my dad and uncle than will ever be provided by this scroll." _There were only four techniques on the scroll, two of which he already knew. Shikamaru looked over the final two techniques, Shadow Manipulation and Shadow Puppetry.

"_Shadow Manipulation allows a shadow user project a shadow of his head around corner or obstacles and us it to collect information about an enemy's disposition." _Shikamaru nodded to himself, as he sipped a bit of the sake he had poured while reading. _"Makes sense, no better knowledge than first hand knowledge."_

"_Shadow Puppetry allows a shadow user, connected to a target, to control the user simply using his mind. This frees that shadow user from having to mimic the movement he desires his target to use. This technique requires that the user be able to focus clearly on what he wants his target to do."_

As Shikamaru finished reading about the technique as the door opened. "Hey mom and dad, I'm her to visit," he said.

They walked both soon appeared in the door. "Well, its about time!" His mother yelled. "You haven't been to visit in over a month!"

Shikamaru shrunk as his mother yelled at him. "Sorry mom," he said. This seemed to appease her and she left the doorway and walked to the kitchen.

"Are you going to be here for dinner?"

"Yes mom."

Shikaku sat down next to his son. "Did you at least leave some for me?"

"I've only poured one cup. Here, even though it was troublesome, I made sure to have another cup in case you showed up," Shikamaru said as he poured a cup for his dad.

"Good boy... I see you have the family scroll there. Probably finding about as useful as I did," he said.

"Yeah," Shikamaru said, taking another sip of sake. "Only four family jutsus. Granted they're all pretty powerful, but it would have been nice to have more."

"Well, I planned on trying to add more, but it was too troublesome."

"You want to play a game of shogi?"

"Sure, haven't had a challenge in a while."

3333333333333

Naruto had been ecstatic ever since he received his chuunin vest. He made a point of inviting his whole team to celebrated with him at Ichiraku, along with Jiraiya, Kakashi, and Iruka. He'd been so happy that he'd even invited the members of Team 2 along, though Lee was the only one to accept the invitation.

"Naruto, is there anything you could really chew on?" Kiba asked.

"Hey, old man, could you give my friend a steak or something?"

Teuchi scowled at Kiba for a moment. "OK, but only since this is a special occasion for you." Teuchi pulled out one of the steaks he generally used for his beef ramen and gave it to Kiba. Kiba promptly tore it in half and gave half to Akamaru.

"Thanks for coming with my guys," Naruto said.

"Why wouldn't we want to attend?" Lee asked. "We should all celebrate your great triumph in taking another step closer to your goal!"

As always, this earned some odd stares from the rest of the group, save Hinata. She spent her time dividing her glances between her bowl of ramen and Naruto. As she did, she saw Naruto cast some glances at Sakura. But instead of them being the happy furtive glances she was casting, they seemed sad. _"I wonder what happened?"_ Now that she thought of it, she'd seen him doing the same thing today. She couldn't bear the idea of Naruto being sad, so she insinuated herself into the conversation in an attempt to cheer him up.

Slowly the crowd broke up and headed home, in the end it was just Naruto, Hinata and Jiraiya. The three sat talking about Naruto and Jiraiya's travels.

"Can you believe they kicked me out of that bathouse?" Jiraiya asked.

"Yeah I can, you old perv!" Naruto yelled.

Hinata laughed along, then finally noticed the time. "Well, I need to be going. Congratulations again Naruto."

"Thanks Hinata, I couldn't have done it without you."

"You need someone to walk you home?" Jiraiya asked.

"You leave my friend alone!"

"No, I should be fine. See you tomorrow."

The two men watched as Hinata ran off toward her house. "Cute girl," Jiraiya said.

"You shut up! Anyway, you think all girls are cute!"

"Not all, but most. But I was being genuine talking about that one."

Naruto just nodded. Hinata had changed a lot.

3333333333333

Hinata was surprised as she made her way down the hall, the light to her father's study was still on. She peeked in as she walked by. He father was sitting at one side of the table in the middle of the room looking over some papers. "Hello father," she said.

Her father looked up with a smile on his face. "Come in," he said. "I was wondering when you'd return."

"Sorry..."

"Don't be sorry. I'm not mad," he said. "I read the report from Naruto's test today. I'm proud of the part you played. You did very well."

"Thank you father." She paused for a moment. "Father, I was wondering if I could look at the family jutsu scroll. Jiraiya-sensei wanted us to come back tomorrow ready to start learning a new jutsu. I wanted to learn the Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms technique," she said.

"That is a very difficult technique to learn and will require a lot of work. But these are the kinds of goals I have learned to expect from you and I have no doubt that you will be successful." Hiashi walked over to a cabinet and produced a key from a necklace around his neck. He then opened a safe and pulled out a scroll. "Here, read over it tonight and then bring it back to me tomorrow before you leave."

"Yes father!"

"Oh and you should congratulate your cousin. Neji is to be inducted into ANBU."

"I will father!" Hinata said as she ran off toward her room with the scroll.

3333333333333

Jiraiya looked over the chuunin, arrayed on the field in front of him, he'd had to take them to the old field where Sarutobi had trained him. If Tsunade was correct, they could all easily become ANBU if they wanted to. "OK everyone, today we're going to practice on dummy targets. Iruka and I will provide targets, puppets and clones as necessary. We're doing this to make sure that you don't inadvertently hurt or kill anyone. Any questions?"

"What am I supposed to do?" Naruto asked. "I don't have any clan techniques to draw from."

"We'll take care of you Naruto," Iruka said. "Now lets get going. Let us know what you need and we'll provide it for you. Then we'll be practicing until lunch."

"Naruto, you come with me," Jiraiya said.

Naruto followed his former and now current sensei. His mind went into overdrive as he tried to think of what he would teach him.

"Naruto, other than genjutsu, what's your chief weakness?"

Naruto knew the answer, he'd heard it enough time from the perv. "I have no ranged attacks."

"Exactly, that ends today. Now that you can do your Great Ball Rasengan, I can teach you my special Rasengan technique, the Launch Rasengan." Jiraiya stopped facing a target. "Watch." Jiraiya conjured a typical Rasengan ball in his hand, he then cocked his arm back like he was going to deliever a punch. "Launch Rasengan!" he yelled, thrusting the ball forward. The ball flew through the air until in connected with the target, causing it to explode. "This technique requires you to create a separate concentration of chakra on you hand. As you push your hand forward, you force that chakra in the same direction. But, you need to supercharge your Rasengan because you won't be able to continue the rotation once its left you hand."

"Got it! I'll have this done by lunch time!"

3333333333333

As lunch came around all the chuunin trudged back to the center of the field. Everyone was exhausted and felt like they'd made no real progress. "Good work everyone," Jiraiya said. "You all have an hour for lunch, then you're to meet me back here for a second session.

"What?!... You gotta... be kidding me," Kiba said.

"Hokage's orders, you now have 59 minutes," Jiraiya said plainly.

"This is troublesome," Shikamaru said as he walked off with Choji. He'd spent all morning attacking a clone of Iruka and the most he'd managed to make it do was clench its fist. "How are we supposed to learn if no one is teaching us?"

"Don't know," Choji said as he pulled out a bag of chips. "Wan' shum Shikamaru?" He asked as he stuffed his face. "I didn't get anywhere with dad's Giant Size technique either."

3333333333333

Iruka gave Jiraiya a concerned look. _"What was the point of it? None of the chuunin made it very far in learning their technique. In fact, most were frustrated and angry at their teachers."_ Iruka decided he'd ask the question. "What was the point of that? None of them progressed very far. Most of them have become frustrated and some may be on the verge of just giving up."

"That we won't allow. As for the point of this exercise, they need to learn to stand on their own feet. That is probably the most important thing to being a jounin. Wouldn't you agree?"

"Do you think we should maybe tell them that?"

"Not yet, anyway I have something different planned for later," Jiraiya said with a sadistic smile on his face.

3333333333333

Now it was Iruka's turn to look over the chuunin assembled on the field, they hardly looked like the same group from that morning. Shikamaru was laying on the ground, possibly asleep. The four girls looked disheveled and the boys looked to be in desperate need of showers.

"Where's the pervy sage?" Naruto asked.

"He's on the mountain over there," he pointed off to a distant peak. "Your mission is to fight your way to him as a team."

"What?!" The question came as a chorus.

Iruka looked a bit nervous. "That's what he said. Now go!"

"There's no way, we're all too worn out," Ino said.

"Stop with the complaints and get going. Not every mission you're going to be given as jounin are going to be under ideal conditions! Now go!"

Shikamaru raised his hand. "One last question, who's team leader?"

"You're all team leader," Iruka said simply and disappeared.

"What should we do?" Ino asked.

"Form up," Shikamaru said. "Triangular formation would be best. Shino, Kiba and Hinata at the points. First two in front, Hinata in back using her Byakugan. Sakura, Lee and Choji split the difference between the three. Naruto you're in the center with the rest of us so you can get to any trouble spots. Anyone got a better idea?"

"No," Shino said. "You planned everything out perfectly. I would suggest that any of the scouts fall back to the middle if attacked."

"Right, let's go!" Naruto said.

3333333333333

Iruka stood with Jiraiya on top of the mountain and watched as the group made their way into the woods. "I hope they make it."

"I'm sure they'll pull through. They'll just have to dig down deep. I didn't take it easy on them."

"Looks like they're about to get their first test," Iruka said.

The two men watched as twenty Jiraiya clones jumped out in an ambush. But before they could even move a stream of attack came flying toward them from Tenten, Ino and Shikamaru. Then they ran into the close combat specialists. In the end, the fight took little more than thirty seconds.

"Impressive, lets see how they hold up against the stronger clones later on," Jiraiya said.

3333333333333

Hinata felt fatigue beginning to tug at her. It was taking a lot out of her to keep her Byakugan running as well as keep up with the others. But she had no other choice, she refused to be the weak link. She concentrated as hard as she could, pushing her vision to its limits. "Hold!" She yelled.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru asked.

"We're in the middle of a minefield," she said. "Everyone stay where they are, don't move!"

"Easier said than done," Kiba said. "We have inbound!"

"Kiba, concentrate your chakra. There's a note two feet to you left. Once you can smell them out, help me get the others out of danger. You two Shino, there's one a foot behind you."

The three were halfway through the evacuation when a group of puppets struck. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled, then joined thirty clones in charging at the puppets. Sakura and Lee covered his rear, getting any that got through before they could attack the others in the minefield. The inclusion of Choji in the fight was the final surge they needed to knock the puppets out.

"Guys, come here," Shikamaru said. "This isn't going to work."

"He's right," Shino said. "He's laid to many traps, he's trying to wear Hinata, Kiba and I out."

"Yeah, so we're going to need to change formation... straight line. Kiba, you start at the front, Shino at the back. That'll let Hinata recharge in the middle for a while. Naruto, you're still in the center with Ino, Tenten and I. The rest of you disperse on the sides of us."

"Got it!" Came a chorus in response.

3333333333333

"Watch it Ino!" Shikamaru yelled. Things were getting rough. Jiraiya had managed to set up quite the ambush. Clones appeared out of perfectly disguised hiding spots all along the line. "Duck Ino," He yelled as Naruto sent one of his clones flying toward the sensei's clone. He had to hand it to Naruto and Hinata, they were keeping the clones off of himself and Ino. Another cluster had formed around Tenten and Shino further up. Slowly but surely they were repulsing the attack. They were nearing the foot of the mountain. But there was still more than enough time for more attacks. Shikamaru used the two clones he'd possessed to destroy each other with a punch, then moved on. He was running low on chakra, but so was everyone else.

Hinata charged her fist and delivered another punch, knocking out yet another clone. These clones were much more skilled than any they'd faced yet. As four clones closed in on her, she emitted chakra from all her points and began rotating. All four quickly disappeared and she moved on to the next one.

Tenten was using every trick in her book to help fend off the clones that were attacking. For the second time since they'd entered the forest she used the Twin Rising Dragons technique. She watched as clone after clone dissolved under the barrage. She could see the fatigue in many of the other members of the team. There was no way she was going to let the guys one up her and she worked to dig in deeper as she landed, drawing out another scroll to continue the attack. Luckily, or unfortunately, she didn't have to use that scroll.

"Everyone OK?" Sakura asked.

"Fine here," Tenten said.

"We've got to stop," Ino said. "We need to rest, otherwise we won't make it."

"No, we can't," Shino said.

"Why?" Ino pressed.

"Because he's watching us," Shikamaru said. "If we stay put he'll likely hit us even harder. Everyone just has to keep going."

"Come on Ino, you don't want everyone to show you up, do you?" Tenten asked. She walked over to the girl. "Sakura's barely breathing hard." She smiled when that seemed to stir the girl to action.

"Come on everyone!" Naruto yelled. "Shino, Kiba, Hinata, you guys can take a break, I have surveillance covered." Naruto nicked his finger and once again summoned Gamadeki. "You know the drill."

"Sure thing boss." The toad launched off after Naruto completed two more sets of hand signs.

Shikamaru smiled. "So that's how you figured out where we were. I figured you'd use Shino's bugs, which I had a plan for."

"Gotta expect the unexpected," Naruto said.

3333333333333

Jiraiya smiled as the group formed in front of he and Iruka on the mountain. He'd launched one more attack, which they'd fended off. "Good job everyone. You exceeded my expectations. So, you guys don't have to report until noon tomorrow."

"Sensei, are we going to get better instruction tomorrow?" Kiba asked.

"No." 

"What?" A few of the chuunin stared at Jiraiya dumbfounded.

Jiraiya looked irritated. "I'd hoped someone would figure this out, but apparently I'll have to explain it to you. You are all chuunin, once you're jounin there won't be anyone there to hold your hand. Along with developing new techniques, the point of your training is to teach you to stand on your own. If you can't do that, let me know and you will be dismissed from training. But you'll remain a chuunin because you will have proved yourself to be unworthy. Dismissed," Jiraiya said in an official tone.

Iruka was a bit disturbed as they made their way down the mountain. "That was a bit harsh."

"Well its the truth. Our job is to make them into strong, self-reliant jounin. There may be a lot I don't take seriously, but when it comes to making sure these kids will be ready when the day comes, I'm taking it very seriously. We need to work on building up their chakra reserves. I want you to design a workout to help with that."

"Yes sir!" Iruka felt like he understood things a little better now and why his teachers had always driven him so hard.


	4. A Month for Two Days

A Month For Two Days

A month, the chuunin had been training for a month straight without any break in sight. Naruto finished the run second, behind Lee. The pervy sage had send them on a ten mile run after having had them train all morning. Slowly the rest of the group made their way in. Kiba and Akamaru were next.

"I don't know how much more I can take," Kiba said.

"Don't give up! This is the Springtime of Youth!" Lee said, trying to rouse his fellow chuunin.

"You're crazy," Kiba responded, Akamaru barking an affirmative.

Before an argument could break out Jiraiya stepped in. "Calm down you two or I'll have you doing another three hours of jutsu practice."

Naruto chuckled when even Lee blanched at the prospect. He then turned to see Hinata and Tenten lead a small group in. Soon the only two left were Choji and Shikamaru. It took them about ten minutes longer than anyone else to finally arrive.

"All right, I have good news for you all!" Jiraiya exclaimed.

"We're going to die?" Shikamaru asked jokingly.

"No... you all have two days off. You aren't allowed to do any training during those days."

"Who would want to?" Shikamaru asked again.

"If that's all, you're all dismissed."

Naruto joined many of the others in a cheer at their good fortune. He was one of the few people who didn't mind training, but what the pervy sage was doing to them seemed inhuman. It was far worse than anything they'd done while he'd been away. Naruto quickly started working out what he was going to do on his break day. _"Maybe I should try to get myself a date."_

Naruto was a bit surprised by who came to mind. He walked up behind Hinata as they left the training field. The two of them had become rather good friends over the past month. There were many days the two of them would talk during their lunch break at Ichiraku. "Hey Hinata, mind if I walk with you for a while?"

"No, not at all," she said. Hinata mentally jumped for joy. Naruto was talking to her and she wasn't in the least bit nervous.

"How's the Sixty-four Palms technique coming?" Naruto asked.

"I almost have it! Maybe a few more times and I'll have it dead on. How about you?"

"Well, Jiraiya finally caved and suggested I first work on doing the two parts of the technique separately. Since then, things have been going a lot smoother. My problem right now is putting enough force in the throw."

"I'm sure you'll get it," Hinata said. As she finished she stopped to make the turn to her family's house. "Well, I have to go." She then turned, but was stopped by Naruto before she could walk off.

"Hinata, you want to go get some ramen tomorrow?" Naruto asked.

For the first time since her talk with Kurenai, Hinata was nervous around Naruto. "A d-date?" She asked.

"Yeah," Naruto said brightly.

Part of Hinata was doing the biggest most raucous victory dance ever, the routine included fireworks, confetti, the works. The other part just wanted to shrink away and run. She stood for a second until the victory dance part of her screamed about how this was what she'd always wanted. "Sure, I'll meet you at Ichiraku at noon." She stood rooted as Naruto walked off, then turned to head to her house. She was a bit surprised when she saw Sakura and Tenten standing there.

"About time," Sakura said.

"You both saw it all."

"Yeah, we started following you two after we saw Naruto flag you down," Tenten said. "We were afraid that we should have had Ino to take over you mind for a second to say yes."

"How did you know I wanted to say yes?"

"Because its been obvious to pretty much everyone but dunderhead that you've had a crush on him forever. I'm just glad he's finally over me."

Hinata smiled. "Could you two help me pick out something nice for our date tomorrow?"

"Why do you think we're here?" Tenten asked.

444444444444

When he got home Naruto quickly heated up some ramen and, as he did with all ramen, inhaled it. He felt like he could sleep for a week, but first took a quick shower and then collapsed on his bed. He fell asleep almost the instant his head hit the pillow. He hoped maybe he'd have a dream about Hinata or being Hokage, instead he got a meeting with the fox.

He realized where he was instantly. He tried to throw his mind from fox's lair, but it was no use. He made the familiar turn and found himself confronted with his cell. But the scene was changed from the last time he'd been there, a red gas was being emitted from the cell. The foxes eyes glowed with anger when he opened them.

"What are you doing to me?!"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm leaving you alone just like Jaraiya told me to," Naruto responded. "Now let me go, I wanted to spend my sleep dreaming, not talking to you."

"You little brat, you're lying. You're slowly siphoning off my chakra! You're depriving me of my power! Give it back!" The fox yelled, hoping to frighten Naruto somehow.

"Whatever... I'm leaving now." Naruto concentrated and soon was out of the foxes prison and slipped into a dream where he was beating up Sasuke. _"Well, it wasn't Hinata or being Hokage, but was still good."_

44444444444

Even though she had the day off Hinata got up at the same time so that she could have breakfast with her father, sister and cousin. She was in such a good mood that she skipped to breakfast. Today she was going on a date with Naruto.

Neji looked up as Hinata walked into the room. He was already in his ANBU uniform. The only part he didn't have on was his mask, which he was only allowed to wear while on duty. He was forbidden to reveal his mask or his assumed identity to anyone. "Congratulations Hinata," he said. He knew how much she had been waiting for this day.

"What are you congratulating her for?" Hanabi asked.

Hinata decided she'd be the one to come clean. "I have a date with Naruto today." She looked nervously at her father. In the past, he had voiced ill feelings toward him, though she didn't know why. She was encouraged when he just nodded and went back to looking over some papers.

Breakfast proceeded quietly. Part way through Neji had to leave for work. He left a discouraged Hanabi in his wake, the girl was convinced if she pestered her cousin enough she'd get to see his mask. Eventually she got up to head off to the Academy, leaving Hinata and Hiashi alone. Hinata went to get up, but Hiashi stopped her.

"In the past I would have forbade you from even being near that boy if it could be avoided. But I would have been wrong. He's changed us, you, Neji and I, and definitely for the better."

Hinata smiled and sat for a moment longer, but that appeared to be all her father had to say. She got up and went back to her room to relax before she started getting ready.

44444444444

"This is troublesome," Shikamaru though. "On my day off she had to come." He trudged slowly toward the main gate of the village. He took a moment to look up at the clouds as he did. _"They're the only things I can count on not to be troublesome," _ he thought. He turned the final corner on his path and saw Temari waiting for him.

"You're late," she said.

"You're here on my day off," he responded.

"I should be the one mad at you. I received word at the gate that the Hokage has said you aren't supposed to do any work today, except escort me. I'm loosing a day because of this."

"Serves you right. Where do you want to go?"

"How about my room. The usual hotel."

"Fine... this way."

44444444444

Bark.

"No Akamaru, I don't think that Ino has a dog. Sorry." Kiba and Akamaru made their way up the street toward the Yamanaka's flower shop/house. He hoped he wasn't making a mistake, but he wouldn't know that until he got there. He was a bit upset that Akamaru didn't seem to happy about the idea. He'd tried to explain it to the dog, but Akamaru still seemed like he felt betrayed. Kiba finally reached the flower shop and found Ino behind the counter.

"Hey Kiba, what are you up to?"

"Not much, just in the neighborhood and I figured I'd drop by." Kiba walked over and smelled a particularly nice smelling flower. "How's your day been?"

"Dad went to the bar and mom went out on an errand so I have to watch the shop. So, it could be better."

Not exactly the answer that Kiba was hoping for. I'm having a great day would have been ideal. "Hey, what are you doing tonight? I heard they opened a new steakhouse across town and I was going to go try it, you want to come with?"

Ino was a bit shocked by the question. She still held some feelings for Sasuke, but she knew that it was pretty useless to hold out that hope. _"Maybe I should give Kiba a try. I could do worse," _she thought to herself. She saw that Kiba was becoming nervous. "Sure, when were you planning on going?"

"Six," he said, a bit shocked.

"OK, see you then."

44444444444

Hinata ran down the streets of the village elated. This was the best day of her life. She had absolutely no worries. She smiled when the familiar sight of Ichiraku ramen stand appeared in front of her. She was wearing a shirt with a plunging neckline, at the other two girls' insistence, and a pair of nice shorts. She smiled when she saw that Naruto was already there. "Hi Naruto," she said, as confidently as she could. She was still a bit nervous about being on an actual date with him.

Naruto smiled as he looked over to Hinata from his seat. He felt lucky that Sakura had healed the bruises she'd put on him that morning. He'd fully intended on wearing his typical orange and black suit, but she'd insisted otherwise, violently. She'd actually dragged him out to a store where she'd forced him to buy a collared shirt and shorts. Naturally, he chosen an orange shirt. "Hey Hinata, you look very pretty today."

Hinata blushed as she took her seat next to Naruto. She had to assume that Sakura, Tenten or both had imposed Naruto's new clothes on him.

"Hey old man, I'd like a bowl of pork ramen. What would you like Hinata?" He was doing his best to stick to what Sakura had told him to do. He'd never known that dating could be so complicated.

"I'll have the same," she paused for a moment. "Did you hear about Neji?"

"Yeah, I still haven't run into him since he got accepted to ANBU. Hopefully he'll be the leader by the time I become Hokage. It would be good to have someone I can trust in that position. I could make you head of the trackers too, I think you'd be great for that."

"Thanks Naruto." She'd been considering a job as a tracker once she became a jounin.

"Here you go guys. Added some extra pork for my two favorite customers."

"Thanks!" Naruto was thrilled. "I'll make sure everyone knows about Ichiraku when I become Hokage!"

"I'll hold you to that," the old man replied.

Naruto managed to finish two bowls in the time it took Hinata to finish one. He made sure that he didn't burp, not that she hadn't heard him do it before. "You done?" He asked as she finished.

"Yeah."

"Here you go, old man," he said as he paid for all three bowls.

The old man smiled. "Are you two on a date?"

"Yeah." Naruto responded.

"Well, then I recommend you go by the ice cream shop down the road. The owner is a friend of mine. Tell him I sent you," Teuchi said with a smile.

"Sounds great," Hinata said.

44444444444

Sakura and Tenten watched as Hinata and Naruto walked down the street toward the ice cream stand. They both smiled as Naruto slipped his hand into Hinata's. This triggered a blush from the other girl, but she managed to continue with their conversation.

"You did a good job on him. He hasn't done anything rude yet," Tenten complimented.

"He knows I'll break his neck if he messes this up to badly. Hinata's been waiting on this date since we were in the Academy. Too bad Neji isn't off today. You guys could have done something."

"He couldn't get the day off because of the short notice. He managed to get tomorrow though and he promised to take me to that cute little café, you know the one."

"Yeah," Sakura sighed. _"I wish Sasuke were here to take me to that caf__é__."_

"With everyone pairing off we'd better find you someone before all the good ones are gone," Tenten said, hoping to distract her friend. "Maybe Lee or Shikamaru," she continued.

"Nah, they're both nice, but just not for me."

"You really should try to get over him. He may not come back, and even if he does, he may be changed."

Sakura didn't respond, she didn't want to think of that. "Hey, we'd better find a new place to watch them from. They already got their ice cream and they turned to head to the park."

44444444444

Kiba went over everything one last time in his head as he neared Ino's again. He'd cleared things with the restaurant owner to allow Akamaru in. He was all cleaned up as was Akamaru, much to the dog's displeasure. Most importantly, he had enough money to pay for dinner for himself and Ino. "Well, I think we should be just fine Akamaru." He grimaced at the dog when he didn't respond. "I'm sorry I had to give you a bath, but I want to impress Ino. Cheer up, we'll go play in the park tomorrow and you can get all smelly again."

Akamaru finally looked up at Kiba and barked.

They'd actually walked by the park on the way. Naruto and Hinata had been sitting on a bench talking. He'd smiled at the sight, Naruto was a knucklehead, but he was getting a lot better. On top of that it made his teammate happy, something he couldn't argue with. He knocked on the door as he walked in, "Ino?"

"Just a minute," she called down from her family's upstairs apartment.

Kiba stood for a moment enjoying the smell of the flower shop. One thing he enjoyed about being him was that he could enjoy pleasant smells more than most. He looked up when Ino came down wearing a casual, purple dress. "You look great," he said.

"Thanks," she then caught sight of Akamaru. "He's coming with us?"

Kiba shushed the growling Akamaru. "Yeah, he goes where I go." Kiba held the door for her and then led the way to the steakhouse. He was making sure to keep in mind the things his sister and mother had suggested to him. As he was going through the mental check list he realized that he hadn't said a word to her in a while. _"Think... think... I need to say something to break the silence..."_

"So, did you hear about Naruto asking Hinata out on a date?" Ino asked, saving Kiba.

"Yeah, I saw them at the park as I was walking over here. That makes two pairs recently," she said wistfully.

Kiba hoped she didn't hear him gulp. He could sense that there was a message underlying the comment, and that message was "Don't screw this up."

"How's your Multiple possession technique coming along?" Kiba asked.

"Its getting better, I can mostly control the second person now. My dad said he controlled ten people one time. I don't know that I'll necessarily ever get that many."

"Eh, I'm sure you will. Akamaru and I have almost learned our new jutsu, its going to be great." Kiba's nose twitched with the smell he was picking up, Ino was loosing interest. It was the smell he and Hinata generally let off when Shino started rambling on about bugs. _"I've got to do something... and fast."_ Kiba raced through his mind trying to find a more suitable topic, eventually he found one. "Hey Ino, what are those yellow flowers in your shop called. The one's on the back wall, they smelled really nice." _"Bingo!"_

"Those ones, I never really noticed their smell..."

44444444444

Shikamaru was dreading tonight. There was no escaping it, he was going to have to have dinner alone with that troublesome girl. What was worse was that they'd already spent all day together. He'd managed to get Choji to hang out with him all yesterday and even eat dinner with them, but his parents had insisted that he have dinner with him. As usual, his dad was in the bar, eliminating that out. He could take her to eat dinner at his parent's house with his mom, but there was no way he could deal with two troublesome women at once. Even Ino was doing something tonight, he was backed into a corner.

He walked slowly toward her hotel to pick her up. She'd insisted that they go to a sushi restaurant. _"Typical, she makes me pay and then chooses the restaurant. It would be one thing if I'd asked her on a date."_ That led Shikamaru to the most troublesome thing about Temari, he actually had feelings for her. He saw she was already outside the hotel, luckily she wasn't all dressed up because he wasn't.

"You're late," she said.

"Whatever," he decided any more of a response would be too troublesome. "Let's get moving. I'm hungry."

"Then why'd you show up late?"

"I just got hungry, so in my mind I showed up on time." He pasued. "Troublesome woman," he muttered.

"I heard that. You know, for someone who complains about how much trouble other people are, you're quite a bit of trouble yourself. Always late, and needing me to save your ass."

Shikamaru blanched at the mention of the time she'd saved him. She was always bringing that up. Sometimes he wished he had died.

"Whatever, you complained about me being late. Let's get going."

44444444444

Hinata wasn't used to girl talk. She generally wasn't included. But since the other night, she'd apparently become fast friends with the other chuunin kunoichi. Not that she minded, her father had always said she needed to make female friends.

"How was your date with Naruto last night?" Tenten asked innocently.

"It was good, but you already knew that." She looked at Tenten and Sakura. "I used my Byakugan when I thought we were being followed."

"Sorry," the girls said together.

"We just wanted to make sure Naruto didn't screw things up. We knew how much that date meant to you," Sakura said.

Though it frustrated her a bit that she was spied on, Hinata was happy they had good intentions. Its not like she had anything to hide. She and Naruto had sat in the park and talked for a few hours, then he'd walked her home and given her a hug. "How did your date go Ino?"

"Surprisingly well," she replied. "Kiba was boring at first. Just talking about jutsus and stuff. But then we started talking about flowers. He's surprisingly rather knowledgeable about their smells and how they go together."

"Well, the boy does have a nose that would put many dogs in this village to shame," Sakura said.

"On top of that, he was really polite. I think he even gave Akamaru a bath before the date."

"He must really like you," Hinata chimed in. "He would have had to make a pretty serious agreement with him to arrange for that."

"You really mean that?"

"Yeah," Hinata said. "Akamaru hates baths. The last time he had to give him a bath he had to agree to spend half a week's pay on treats for him."

"Wow..." Ino responded.

44444444444

"_Things could definitely be worse. She's only yelled at me once since we got to the restaurant," _Shikamaru thought. What's more, he was actually enjoying her company. Though he didn't let it on. It frustrated him though, she was so troublesome. Maybe it was some sort of genetic thing amongst Nara men, being attracted to women like Temari and his mom. _"One of these days I'll get around to asking her on a proper date."_

"Shikamaru, have you even been listening?"

"Yeah, yeah... you set off the ambush, then Kankuro hit them from behind and you hid your brothers under Gaara's sand to do so. Pretty good plan." Then an idea hit him. He'd heard Asuma say that she was a planner. "Ever played shogi?"

Temari reached across the table and smack him. "Have I ever played shogi? What kind of dumb question is that?"

"Alright, alright... just cool it. I'm used to dealing with Ino. She doesn't exactly run on all cylinders. OW..."

"Be nice."

"Fine, so I assume you'd like to play then. Let's head back to my apartment, I have a board there."

"I won't go easy on you just because you paid for dinner."

"And I won't go easy on you just because you're a... OW!" Shikamaru scowled at her. _"Troublesome woman, she and his mom would get along great and that was a scary thought."_

44444444444

"I guess I'll give him at least one more chance." She then turned to Tenten. "Speaking of dates, why are you even here? I thought Neji had the day off."

"He did," Tenten said in an irritated tone. "We were just walking out of the café when an ANBU walked up to us in full uniform and told Neji he'd been recalled from leave. He promised he'd make it up though... and he did kiss me again."

"I wonder why he got recalled?" Hinata asked.

"I heard the ANBU mutter something about Anko..."

"Anko's on assignment in the Land of Sound," Sakura said, she paused for a moment. "Maybe she found Sasuke!"

**A/N: Well, how do you like it? Not my typical action, but every story needs some breaks from action. Just curious, Kiba/Ino, good or bad? Drop me a line with any suggestions or complaints. I can't fix it if I don't know its a problem.**


	5. Sasuke Returns

Sasuke Returns

24 Hours Earlier

Sasuke sheathed his sword and looked over the arena in front of him. _"Yet another pointless training session. I'm not getting stronger anymore."_ He thought, looking up at Orochimaru. _"And the reason is him. He won't teach me anymore because he's afraid, afraid I'll run off if I get too strong."_ Well, it was the truth, he did plan on leaving soon. He'd need to become even stronger if he wanted to beat his brother. _"Maybe I should try going home."_

"Excellent job," Orochimaru said in his high pitched voice. "You're becoming stronger every day."

"No, I'm not," Sasuke said back. "Those guys were weak."

"So, you want a real challenge then?" Orochimaru smiled. "How about you lead a raiding squad against the Hidden Leaf village? Is that enough of a challenge?"

"It will be, because whoever you send with me will just be weak and I'll have to cover them."

"I take it you accept then?"

"Yes, what's the objective?"

"I want you to retrieve the information your family kept about the Sharingan. I want to read it so that I can better train you and make you more powerful." Orochimaru replied. "Oh... and kill your little friend... the demon brat. I'll give you three teams."

"_Yeah right, you want to read about it for when you steal my body." _"Good, you're finally giving me a challenge," Sasuke said. _"I guess that this will kill any chance of going home, at least for a while. Maybe they'll forgive me after I kill Itachi."_

555555555555

Anko sat waiting for her snake to return. It had taken her a month to track down where Orochimaru was hiding, but she'd finally done it. Hopefully something good and juicy would come of this. Something to prove she'd done a good job. The snake slithered its way toward her, from its behavior she could tell she'd struck gold. "What do you have?"

"The Uchiha is-s-s going to lead three teams-s-s of ninja to the village."

"Good job," Anko said as she fed it the rat she'd caught while waiting. _"I'd better get moving. None of my snakes are fast enough to send a message with. Oh well, I know where to start when I come back."_ Anko jumped out of her hiding spot and started running back toward the Hidden Leaf Village.

55555555555

"Finally," Tsunade said. It was four in the morning and she had looked over the last of the papers she needed to before going to sleep. "Now, I'll just have a small glass of sake before calling it a night." She was just about to take her first sip of the sake when a knock came at the door. _"Who the hell could that be?"_ "Come in!" She shouted. _"This better be damn good."_

Anko opened the door to Tsunade's office. She was worn out, not having stopped since she set off. She'd made it back in a little less than a day. "I have an urgent report."

"_This was good. It disappointed her a little, she'd been looking forward to giving someone a beating." _She sat back at her desk, this could only be related to one person, Orochimaru. "Report."

Anko summoned her snake once more. "I want you to tell the Hokage everything you heard in Orochimaru's lair."

"The young Uchiha is-s-s to lead a raid on the village. He is tas-s-sked with retrieving his family's papers about the Sharingan and killing a blond haired boy."

"_Naruto." _Tsunade looked off into space for a moment. "Good work Anko. I would like you to warn the night guards, I have other work to do."

"Yes Lady Tsunade," Anko went running out of the office.

Tsunade left the office as well and headed straight for Shizune's room in the tower. "SHIZUNE!" She said as she barged directly into her aide's room. "Get up right now. I need you to get some people for me!"

Shizune leaped up in her bed. "Yes Tsunade!" She quickly dressed and began following behind her mentor.

"I need you to get Jiraiya's chuunin, Neji and Kakashi. I want them all in my office in an hour!" She stopped for a moment to consider something, then added. "Don't tell them why just yet"

55555555555

Naruto wasn't happy. He'd been in the middle of a great dream. He was Hokage and everyone was saying how great he was. Even Sasuke was bowing at his greatness. "Why the hell are we here?" He yelled, earning a number of angry looks.

Tsunade finally entered the room. "I have an A-rank mission for all of you. Sasuke Uchiha is leading a raid against the village. He is going to be at the head of a group of Sound ninja. Your mission is to intercept them, neutralize the threat and attempt to bring Sasuke back to the village alive."

"Attempt?" Kakashi asked.

"If you can not bring him back in a safe manner you are to kill him. Is that understood?"

"We can't kill..." Sakura began.

"Understood," Naruto said, cutting across her.

Sakura turned in shock. "Naruto! This is Sasuke we're talking about!"

"Sakura, pull yourself together," Tsunade said. "You're a ninja and you have a mission. You will be leaving in an hour, Kakashi will be the leader."

Sakura left the room quickly and followed Naruto, pulling him off to the side. "How could you agree to killing him? It's Sasuke... you can't kill him," she said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"If it comes to that then Sasuke's already dead," he replied.

55555555555

"What's the plan Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked enthusiastically once everyone had assembled.

"Simple, we're going to seek out Sasuke and the sound ninja and engage them. Nothing complex. Naruto, you and I will engage Sasuke, the others will take care of his associates."

"What?" Sakura asked incredulously. "I want to help with Sasuke?"

"Sakura, if I told you to, would you kill Sasuke."

"Well..."

"OK, someone dies."

"What?" Sakura asked.

"If you are hesitant to kill your opponent you, or worse, someone else will die. You do your part and we'll do our best to bring Sasuke back alive. Neji and Kiba in front, Hinata and Shino in the rear. Everyone make sure you keep alert. Let's go."

55555555555

Sasuke was glad to be moving again. Unfortunately they'd had to stop for the night. But it was necessary, he had no intention on going into battle with no rest, especially if he had to face Naruto. The last time the two of them had battled he'd only just won. Now that he knew what he was up against, a demon container, he had to be ready. _"I wonder how much better he's gotten. This should be an interesting test."_ He watched as the rest of party made their final preparations to move out. "Same formation and heading. It will be best to take the shortest route and hope for surprise."

Sasuke didn't say anything else, it wasn't his way. He didn't know any of the members of the team on a personal level. He had simply looked through the information that Orochimaru had stored on them and chose each based on their fighting ability and special talents. His thoughts that day were singleminded, he was finally going to get a real test of his power. They'd been moving for a few hours when one of the leaders ordered them to hold. "What is it?"

"Twelve ninja, wait there's a thirteenth coming, in a clearing straight ahead."

"Can you identify any of them?" Sasuke pressed. _"This is frustrating, they're going to wear us out before we need to do the real fighting."_

"One of them is our target, Naruto Uzumaki. There's also Kakashi Hatake, Sakura Haruno, Neji Hyuuga..."

"Well, I think we just hit the jackpot. Are they set up for an ambush?"

"No, they just seem to be waiting."

"Well, it seems we're expected. Well let's not keep them waiting."

55555555555

Temari was pissed. There was a big fight coming and no one had invited her. What's more, they were Sound ninja, the village whose leader had killed her father and led her village into an unnecessary war. It was time she started paying them back for what they'd done. She hopped out a final tree and landed behind the group of Leaf ninja.

"What are you doing here?" Shikamaru asked.

"Well, I thought I might have to save your ass again."

"Does the Hokage know you're here?" Kakashi asked.

"Yes."

"Well then just concentrate on the tag-alongs, Naruto and I are going to take care of Sasuke."

"You're so troublesome," Shikamaru said with a sigh.

"How about you focus on the battle to come," she snapped back at him as she pulled her fan from behind her back.

A moment later, the members of the raiding party were standing on the other side of the clearing. Sasuke was standing in the middle.

"Sasuke!" Sakura yelled.

Kakashi ignored her outburst and stepped forward. "Sasuke you are currently not considered a rogue ninja. If you just come with us we can avoid a lot of trouble. As for your comrades, they are. The only way I can guarantee that they won't be killed is for them to surrender immediately."

"That's not going to happen. Let's stop wasting our breath."

Kakashi was a moment too late in reacting. As Sasuke finished speaking, Naruto sprinted forward. "You're mine Sasuke!"

Sasuke held his hand up and watched with an amused look as his friend charged across the field. He wasn't at all surprised when Naruto created nine clones of himself and began forming the Rasengan. _"Same old tricks. I'm disappointed."_

"Launch Rasengan!" Eight of the clones yelled. The eight balls of chakra went flying toward the Sound ninja, forcing them to disperse. Naruto watched as Sasuke jumped into the air to avoid the two balls that targeted him. Naruto and his clones jumped to match his friend's movement. He almost had everything ready. He watched as Sasuke swiped through three of the clones, destroying them. He was about to dispatch another one when another clone grabbed the sword. "Great Ball Rasengan!" Naruto yelled as he and a clone gathered a chakra ball between the two of them.

Sasuke watched the latest events nervously. _"What the hell has gotten into Naruto? I have to act, and fast, or I'm done for."_ Sasuke pulled the clone closer to him and twisted it into Naruto's path. The clone absorbed a small amount of the energy before the rest slammed Sasuke backward. He landed hard amongst the trees. Sasuke felt nervous as he got up. Naruto stood about ten feet away from him with a determined look on his face. What was more intimidating was that even after such exertion he was barely breathing hard.

55555555555

Hinata ducked as a kunai came her way. After Naruto's initial attack the Sound ninja had scattered and the Leaf ninja had moved to engage them. She and Neji were now locked in combat with three ninja, each watching the other's back.

"Hinata, cover me," Neji said in a passive voice.

"Don't worry," Hinata drew some chakra into her fingers and faced two of the Sound ninjas. She had to admire Neji, they were in the middle of a pitched battle and he sounded bored. The two ninja bolted toward Hinata. She struck quickly, hitting a chakra point in the hip of one, felling him. She then focused completely on the other.

Neji adjusted his stance. He'd lured the poor fool into range and now he was going to end it. "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms." His body rocketed into motion, delivering strikes to all the chakra points on the man's body. It was hopeless for him, in moments he was laying on the ground motionless. He then turned to see how Hinata was faring. He smiled when he saw her settle into the same stance. "Do it Hinata," he said in a reassuring tone, then moved to cover her. The other ninja seemed to have some medical training and was working to reopen the chakra flow to his leg.

Naruto had mastered his technique, she could to. Hinata knew she could do it. "Eight Trigrams: Sixty-four Palms." _"I'll make father proud, I'll prove myself to Naruto and Neji again!"_ Hinata felt her hands deliver the first few strikes, dead on. _"Its working!" _Her hands continued working, faster and faster. When it was over the shocked ninja fell to the ground. She then joined Neji in turning on the final ninja.

"Melody of Death!" He yelled.

Both Neji and Hinata buckled as the man emitted a high pitched scream. Reality seemed to begin distorting. "Genjutsu!" Neji yelled. "Release!"

No effect. Hinata ran as quickly as she could toward Neji, one of them needed to be released. She gathered some chakra in her hand. On reaching him, she pushed her chakra into his body, hoping to release him from the genjutsu.

Just before reality had been fully distorted, things snapped back into focus. _"Hinata!" _He heard her fall down behind him, but he couldn't do anything yet. "Chakra Archery!" He yelled, lashing out with Hinata's attack. He plugged all the holes in his arms, he then turned the attack on the man's lungs. _"I've got to make sure he can't launch another one of those attacks."_ The man buckled as the chakra began hitting his lungs. Neji began moving closer and putting increasingly large amounts of chakra into the attacks. It wasn't long before the man was lying on the ground taking shallow, labored breaths. Generally, Neji would have looked after the man, but first he needed to make sure Hinata was doing alright."

55555555555

"Do something you lazy good-for-nothing!" Temari yelled. She'd managed to keep the two men off of Shikamaru, but it was taking everything she had. One man was generating extremely powerful soundwaves just by clapping his hands and snapping his fingers and had used them to knock over some trees. The other simply seemed to have an unlimited lung capacity and kept assaulting them with gusts of wind.

"Just a second!" He yelled. "Troublesome woman," he muttered under the noise. He'd been carefully snaking his shadow around behind the two men so they wouldn't try to dodge. "Got them," he said a few seconds later. He smiled at the two men's shock. "Now... Shadow Puppetry!" Shikamaru concentrated hard and forced the two men to face each other. He had one shot because he could feel his chakra depleting quickly. He lifted the one man's arms while he filled the other's lungs, then unleashed the attacks on both men.

Temari smiled. He was devious, probably why he made such a great shogi player. Both men went flying backward in the face of the other's attack and both, likely intentionally, hit a tree. Temari made sure both men were taken care of by hitting them full in the head with her fan.

"That was excessive. Hitting the guys while they were down."

"Oh shut up. The way you beat me in most of those shogi games last night was excessive."

"Troublesome woman..."

55555555555

There was no way that Sasuke was going to win this fight without using the curse seal, and he knew it. Naruto was bad enough, but teamed with Kakashi, he stood little chance. Just when he'd finally force one away, the other would strike. Not only that, Kakashi was copying the new jutsus he was using. He needed to use the curse seal, but to do that he needed some time to let it fully activate. He launched a fireball at Kakashi, driving him further away. _"Perfect!" _He had only a split second to enjoy that before something wet and coarse wrapped around his leg and he was being yanked in the opposite direction. He turned to face whatever it was. He saw two Narutos standing next to a human-sized toad with a pipe and a katana. "Shit!"

"Great Ball Rasengan!" Naruto yelled while he and the clone surged forward. The ball of chakra slammed into his friend, instantly changing his direction. Naruto immediately dispersed the clone and turned to the toad. "Let's go Gamakichi."

"Right blondie."

Naruto resisted the urge to snap at the toad. No matter how many enemies the toad saw him defeat or how much power he displayed, he still called him blondie. Though, unlike his father, Gamakichi was always willing to fight alongside Naruto and required very little persuasion. Naruto hopped onto the frog's back as it went hopping toward where Sasuke had landed. Naruto hoped that last attack had knocked him out but was quickly disabused of that. Sasuke stood up, the signs of the first level of his curse mark apparent. _"Damn it! Not this again!" _"Hold up Gamakichi." The toad halted and Naruto hopped down beside him. Kakashi soon joined the two.

"Well, I was hoping we'd stop him before he activated that." Kakashi said, his voice just as even as always.

"It just means we'll have to put more effort in before the end," Naruto responded. To him, the outcome was already determined, they were brining Sasuke back.

55555555555

"Come on Ino!" Kiba yelled. "You've got to do it soon!" Kiba took another swing at the girl who kept dancing around him. He was quick, but this girl was just insane. He looked over and saw Akamaru connect with the man he was fighting. "Do it Ino!"

"Now!" Ino watched as Kiba, Akamaru and Choji hit the ground. She threw her spiritual energy in a circle around her. _"One... two... got them all!"_ She saw through the eyes of her three victims.

"Do it now boys," said the Sound girl.

"Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba yelled as he threw the girl over by the ninja the dog had taken down. "Man Beast Technique: Ultimate Toothed Take-down!" The two Kibas jumped and latched onto each other. After a massive puff of smoke, a massive wolf appeared. As it ran, its body began spinning behind it, but its head remained still, the mouth opened to reveal a set of razor sharp fangs the size of large kitchen knives. The jaw clamped shut on the two incapacitated victims only a moment after Ino released her jutsu.

Just a moment later, Ino watched through the last ninja's eyes as Choji became a giant. He simply picked the ninja up and threw him. Ino's jutsu automatically released after he passed a certain range, but she knew it was highly unlikely that the man would survive.

"We should try to help the others," Choji said, remaining in his giant form.

"Good idea, let's move out," Ino replied.

55555555555

Sakura watched as a bug clone of Shino evaporated just before the strike of the guy he was fighting. The man's body continued to move right into the swarm of bugs. Shino, who Sakura could now see behind her closed his hand, causing bugs to swarm the man. He began screaming as they drained away his chakra, Shino simply stood and watched.

Sakura turned her attention back to the man she was fighting. He was easily seven feet tall, with arms and legs the size of tree trunks, but size wasn't everything. Sakura charged the Sound ninja again. She ducked under his first punch and timed a chakra release with her own counter-strike, delivering a shot to the middle of his ribcage. He doubled over as his ribs cracked, but Sakura pressed the attack delivering a bone-breaking punch to his arm and finishing him with a kick to the back. She turned and saw Lee standing with a smile on his face, a Lotus Strike had finished his opponent, and Tenten, standing with a bow in hand. She gave them all a once over with her eyes, no one seemed to be too badly hurt.

"We should try to rendezvous with the others," Shino said simply.

"Yes, some of them may need help! Let's go!" Lee yelled.

Sakura joined the other two in following the eager taijutsu expert. By the time they had reached the clearing where the battle had started, most everyone was already there, the only ones who weren't were Kakashi and Naruto. "Where are they?"

Everyone knew who she was talking about. Neji decided to speak up. "Their fight has moved about a quarter mile to the north. I felt some of the chakra that Sasuke exhibited at the chuunin exam. I don't imagine that is good."

"I'm going to see if I can help."

"You shouldn't Sakura," Neji responded. "You are confused on this issue and may only get in the way."

"He's my teammate. I have to try to help him."

55555555555

Naruto leaped into the air toward Sasuke. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Four more Narutos joined him in midair. Sasuke whipped his sword around, managing to get one clone, but the others made it through. Sasuke went flying toward the ground where Gamakichi was waiting. The frog captured him with his tongue and threw him at a tree. Naruto landed next to the frog, Kakashi soon joined him. Amazingly, Sasuke was still moving.

"He's acting like you," Kakashi said ironically.

"We need to knock him out before..."

Both ninja could feel Sasuke's chakra intensifying. He'd gone to the second level of his curse seal.

"Naruto, as team leader, I order you to use the fox's chakra to end this. I don't care how you do it anymore."

Naruto was more surprised at the implied idea of killing Sasuke than the request to use the Kyuubi chakra. Internally, Naruto screamed at the fox. _"Give me your chakra fuzzy!"_

"_Why should I?"_

"_Because I'm going to attack him no matter what. Last time I barely made it out alive. So, if you want to live, fork it over!"_

Kakashi soon felt Naruto's chakra intensify as well. _"Its pretty much going to be in his hands now. This fight is out of my league."_ Though, that didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

Naruto hopped onto Gamakichi's back and immediately began performing hand signs. "Earth Style: Animal Armor Jutsu!" A puff of smoke appeared around Naruto and Gamakichi, when it cleared Gamakichi was clad in metal armor. "Combined Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto continued.

"Gonna be another one of those fights blondie?" The five Gamakichis asked.

"Yep," Naruto said. He was glad Jiraiya had taught him these two jutsus. They had come in handy once before when they were travelling through Earth Country. They had been ambushed by nearly twenty rogue shinobi. "Let's go!" Each toad hopped off in a different direction. "All right, rapid fire attack," he said. All five toads took off toward Sasuke, staggering themselves slightly.

Sasuke drew his sword and waited for the attacks to commence. He fired off a fireball at the first toad and rider, dispelling them. He was turning to face the next two when they struck. The two toads lashed out at him with their tongues and the riders leaped off the toads to deliver some crippling punches. Sasuke managed to get in a hit on the second toad and one of the riders, but the other two escaped. The final two hit him before he could even really think. One of the toads hit him with the back of his massive sword and one of the riders smashed a Rasengan into his chest. Sasuke buckled, then went rocketing away with the second impact. He landed unceremoniously on the ground. This was when Kakashi chose to strike.

"Great Fireball Jutsu!" He yelled, using one of Sasuke's favorite techniques.

Sasuke flung his mutated body out of the way. As he did, the area around him began to explode as balls of chakra began hitting around him. The three toads were charging him in a line. The two of the Narutos commenced to form the Great Ball Rasengan. _"I can't take another hit like that." _Sasuke finally resigned himself to his fate. Naruto had become too powerful. "I surrender!" He yelled.

Naruto quickly dispelled the Rasengan he was forming, but kept the clones present. He used the four frogs to surround Sasuke. "What should we do Kakashi-sensei?"

"Well, Sakura just arrived, so I have an idea. Come here Sakura!" He said.

Sakura ran over to where Naruto, Kakashi and Sasuke were. She'd watched the tail end of the battle in horror. She'd been convinced that they were going to kill Sasuke. "Sasuke!" she yelled and began running to him.

"Sakura! Get a hold of yourself!" Kakashi barked. "Just a minute ago he wanted to kill both Naruto and I! I want you to lock up all the joints in Sasuke's hands so he can't do any hand signs."

Sakura teetered on the verge of crying. She wanted to think Kakashi was exaggerating, but she knew it was true. She walked over to Sasuke and quickly began locking up all the joints in his fingers.

"Now back away Sakura," Kakashi said, in a much lighter tone. He knew what the girl was going through, but there would be time for that later. "Okay, we're going to rendezvous with the rest of the team, secure any of the other living Sound ninja and make our way back to the village. Naruto, I'm charging you with guarding Sasuke until everthing is taken care of."

"You can count on me."

55555555555

Tsunade stood outside the interrogation room that they had Sasuke in. The moment they'd put him in there he'd started talking. He apparently had no love for Orochimaru anymore, if he ever really did. "So, what do you think we should do with him?"

"He's not a danger to the village." Jiraiya said.

"He is a danger to himself, though." Kakashi added. "There's no guarantee he won't try to leave again. Though, I think I have something that might convince him to stay."

"Okay, go ahead and try it."

Kakashi walked into the room and took a seat in front of Sasuke. He looked up at the two ANBU guards, then back to Sasuke. Kakashi unveiled his eye, then began staring intently at the floor. He made a hand sign and gathered chakra into his eye. It took him about a minute, but when he was done, he looked up.

"How?"

"I can only teach you if you stay."

Sasuke didn't have a response. He simply nodded.

Tsunade watched the exchange. "I think things should be fine. I'm going to release him. I'll have him stay with Naruto, but I want you to be there." She turned to Jiraiya. "For now, I'd like you to keep Sakura away from him. I'm pretty sure he'll stay and that he won't harm anyone, but I want to be sure first."

"Understood."

**A/N: So how do you like my version of Sasuke coming back? After last chapter I felt like writing something with some action in it. Hope you're still enjoying it.**


	6. Strength in the Sand

Strength in the Sand

"Kankuro! Get your lazy ass up!" Temari screamed from the door of the puppet workshop.

Kankuro jumped from the table where he'd fallen asleep. He an Chiyo had finally completed his final puppet. Instead of his original seven, he'd ended up building ten. He'd been fine tuning the last one when he'd fallen asleep. "Holy shit!" He yelled when he finally saw the time.

"Yeah, you're late! Come on." Temari stood for a moment in the door as Kankuro began running to the door. The two made their way up to the meeting room in the Kazekage's tower. She watched as Kankuro fixed himself up for a moment before opening the door.

Kankuro looked at the members of the council apologetically as he made his way to his seat. "My apologies," he said formally. "I was working on a new puppet and lost track of time."

"Apology accepted," Gaara said. He then nodded to Baki.

"You haven't missed much yet. We were just discussing a few low-level missions and a trade agreement. Now, Temari will you please make both of your reports, starting with the Chuunin Exams."

Temari stepped forward and took an intentionally open spot at the table. "Planning for the Chuunin Exams has been going off without a hitch. We met with representatives from the Waterfall and Cloud Villages. They've agreed to all the planning that we've done so far. The Leaf Village is planning extra security for the exams and I was asked to request help from our village."

"We have enough problems of our own," chimed in one of the councilors.

"We will provide a contingent of Jounin to help guard the Leaf Village during the exams," Gaara said simply.

"But..." The councilor was silenced by a look from Gaara.

"Is that all?" Baki asked, working to break up the odd moment.

"Yes, I'll continue on to my next report," Temari said, taking the cue. "I recently took part in a defense of the Leaf Village from a Sound Village raid. At the head of the raiding party was Sasuke Uchiha. He and many of the Sound ninja were captured. Sasuke has renewed his allegiance to his village, though he remains under heavy guard."

"Thank you Temari, you can leave now," Baki said when he saw she had nothing more to say.

"Temari," Gaara interjected, "Please wait outside. I have an assignment for you once we're done." Gaara accepted her nod and then proceeded on. "I have received word from the Hokage that they have begun intensive training of their Chuunin in order to hasten their progression to Jounin. I believe this would benefit us and I plan to put a similar training plan into action. It will require pulling a few of our active Jounin, but in the long run it should strengthen us."

Kankuro looked around the table as Gaara delivered his speech. It was probably the most words he'd ever strung together during a Council meeting. What's more, the councilors seemed to note this as well. _"He must really think it will work."_

"I believe that will be an excellent idea and I believe I speak for the others when I say this," said Sadao. He was probably the leading member of the Council, meaning, if he said it the others would go along. The bald forty-something man smiled toward the Kazekage. "Who do you plan on pulling from service?"

"Temari, Baki, Kankuro and a few others."

Kankuro did a double-take when he heard his name. _"Why the hell am I being used to train people. I'm much better suited to missions."_

"Does anyone else have any business?" Baki asked. He read the silence and dismissed the meeting.

Temari walked back into the conference room as the councilors walked out. "What do you want?" She asked Gaara.

"You three, as the two of you know," he glanced at Kankuro and Baki, "Are going to be reassigned to training Chuunin teams."

"But..." It was now Kankuro's turn to receive a silencing glare from Gaara. "Who do I get?" He asked. He extended a hand to grab a proffered piece of paper from Gaara and quickly glanced at the list. His eyes exploded in terror. "Not them! Please, this has to be a mistake!"

666666666666

Three girls stood, waiting, on the puppet training ground behind the workshop. It had been 24 hours since they had received word directly from the Kazekage that their teams were being reconstructed in order to speed up their training. All three girls were exceptionally gifted puppeteers and eagerly awaited the arrival of their new sensei.

"I wonder if it will be Elder Chiyo?" Kagome asked her twin sister.

"It could be. She went on a mission recently. Maybe she's come out of retirement," her sister Kikyo responded.

The twins, known as the Twin Terrors, were among the most beautiful girls in the village. Both were tall, slender and curvy, with blue eyes. Their hair was red, like many people in the village, and stretched down to their waists. They were both, also, incredibly intelligent. This helped in their second area of expertise, trouble-making. Their Academy sensei and their previous sensei both had many horror stories about the girls. Every so often their brother was also and accomplice, but the boy, one year their senior, had been assigned to a different team. As part of their act, the girls dressed exactly alike, wearing sleeveless white shirts with intentionally plunging necklines. Their pants were brown and were cut off slightly below the knee. They had typical sandals on, their Chuunin vests, worn open, and their hitai-ates were wrapped around the upper part of their left arms.

The third girl said nothing as the twins mused on who their new sensei might be. She too was attractive. Her hair was brown, though she cut it at shoulder length. She was a few inches shorter than the other two girls and had green eyes. She was extremely quiet, only choosing to speak when necessary. She'd graduated first in their class, just ahead of the twins. Unlike the two girls, though, she carried four puppets and each was of her own design. She wore a gray shirt and pants along with her Chuunin vest. Her hitai-ate secured firmly to her forehead.

"What do you think?" Kagome asked Kana.

"That's possible. It might also be Kankuro."

"Oh, that would be great too," said Kikyo. She and her sister now had a crush on the puppeteer after he had decided to start wearing normal clothes.

With that, the door of the puppet workshop opened. Kankuro stepped cautiously through the door. He really didn't know what to expect. He quickly scanned the distance between himself and the three girls. Seeing nothing to alarm him, he walked toward the three girls, a single scroll in his hand.

"Why do you only have one scroll?" Kagome asked before he came to a stop.

"It's all I need anymore." Kankuro replied. "I'm your new sensei, though I'm sure you knew that when I walked through the door." He looked at the twins. "You, on the left, which one are you?"

"I'm Kagome," Kikyo lied.

"Don't start by lying to our new sensei," Kana said. She was the only person, other than their parents, to be able to tell the girls apart.

"Party pooper," Kagaome said.

"Right, Kikyo, you're going to wear your hitai-ate on your left arm while I'm teaching you and on any missions we go on." He turned to Kana. "Please make sure the right one is doing so."

"Fine," Kikyo said in an exasperated tone.

"Now ladies," he said as he thumbed open his scroll, "We're going to have a little fun." He watched as the twins smiled and Kana simply looked on with a bored look, much like Gaara. Kankuro flicked his scroll open, calling his puppets out around him. The varied puppets stood or floated around him in varying positions. The twins pulled out sets of identical puppets, likely of their father's design, and Kana's four puppets were arrayed around her. "Typical scoring rules, let's try not to break any today."

666666666666

For one of the few times in his life, Gaara was nervous. He and a small contingent were currently standing on the sands a few miles away from the Sand Village. He called Baki and Temari over to him. "You have your instructions should things go bad," he said simply. He watched as they both nodded then took up their positions in the hexagon that would surround he and Chiyo.

"Are you ready?" Chiyo asked.

"One moment longer." Gaara took time to reflect on what may have been his final walk through the city. It had been peaceful, if nothing else. No derisive stares, no people running into the nearest building or ally. "Okay," he said simply walked into the middle of the hexagon.

Chiyo nicked her finger and began tracing seals on Gaara's now bare chest and stomach. She was nervous about what they were doing, but she owed it to Gaara to try to help him. "Everything is ready."

Gaara just nodded and prepared for the ordeal. He had been carefully researching seals since he had returned to the village. He needed to be stronger and the only way he could think was to alter the seal that held Shukaku within him. He watched as Chiyo gathered chakra in her hand and then pressed her hand to his stomach. The pain was there for an instant, then it was gone. Gaara fainted.

666666666666

"_It must have worked," Gaara thought to himself. _Gaara seemed to be standing at the base of a massive tree, the tree dwarfed any around it. At the base of the tree was massive hole with a lattice of wood crossing over it. "Shukaku!" Gaara soon heard the raccoon awaken.

"You! What are you doing here?" The raccoon ran at the lattice, hitting it with a massive bang. "Leave me be. I was having a nice nap."

"No," Gaara said flatly. "You're going to give me your power."

Shukaku broke into his sadistic laugh. "That's hilarious!"

Gaara decided not to waste any more time. He strode purposefully toward the gate. _"I need to become stronger for the village. I must be able to protect them!"_ He arrived at the gate and place his hand on the lattice which began to shrink away.

"Oh good, you're letting me out," the raccon said in a very level and threatening tone. "This time I'm going to keep you."

Gaara watched as the raccoon lashed out, trying to grab him. He quickly moved his hand up and grabbed hold of the demon's leg.

"What?" Shukaku screamed. "There's no way you're as powerful as me!"

"This is my mind, my rules." Gaara began growing in size and was soon half as large as demon. He pulled hard on the demon's leg, then rolled over, slamming the raccoon onto the ground. He jumped up quickly and began pummeling his unwelcome visitor. As the fight continued, Gaara's will became stronger and so did his mental body. Shukaku sprinted at him, preparing to barrel into him, but Gaara delivered a crushing spin kick to his head, sending him sprawling.

Shukaku was becoming angry. This wasn't a fair fight, he was in the kid's realm. "Come on, can't we work this out?" A punch from Gaara answered his question.

"This will all end in one way. Either you cede your power to me, or I'll take it by force."

Shukaku watched as the mental self grew again, he was now double his own size and only getting bigger. But he wasn't going to give up. "Never!"

Gaara watched the raccoon charge again. He reared his fist back and waited. When Shukaku came into range Gaara dropped everything he had into the punch. The sand demon's body began to deteriorate and then exploded. Gaara could feel the power of the raccoon as it flowed into his body, it was almost painful. He then smiled to himself. _"I'm stronger now. I can protect them better."_

666666666666

Gaara awoke in the middle of the hexagon, Chiyo giving him a concerned look. "It's me," he said, with almost no trace of emotion.

"Stand down," Chiyo said to the ninja forming the hexagon. She was glad to give the order. Had Shukaku taken control, Gaara had given orders for them to use a special detonation jutsu to kill him.

Gaara stood and donned his full outfit. "You can all go back to the village, I'm going to stay for a while."

As the others walked off, Temari walked over to her brother. "You're definitely okay?"

"Yes, I simply want to do a little training to see what I'm capable of now."

"Don't be too long, you have paperwork to handle."

666666666666

Of the three girls, only Kana was left. Kankuro had managed to knock out two of her puppets. He stood with four of his puppets around him, Eagle, Sphere, Raptor and Bruiser. Eagle stood to his left, with Sphere in front of it. Raptor, a four foot tall puppet of incredible speed, razor-sharp claws, and generally carrying poison, was to his right. Behind him stood bruiser, a seven foot tall humanoid puppet, one arm ended in a chakra cannon, the other arm was designed to act as a chakra shield when necessary.

"Good fight," Kankuro said, catching his breath. "Let's finish this off." He sent his three puppets charging forward. Sphere floated in front of Eagle as the charged at the left puppet. Raptor approached the right puppet while receiving covering blasts from Bruiser. The left puppet scored enough to knock out sphere, but both were quickly put out of commission.

"Good fighting ladies. We're going to meet in the puppet workshop tomorrow. Kagome and Kikyo, I want you to work on puppets that complement each other, not do the same things. Kana, you and I are going to work on ironing out some of the flaws we may have seen in our own puppets. That will be all." Kankuro summoned all his puppets back to the scroll. For their first combat run, they had performed well. He was also feeling rather confident about his team. He'd made it through the first day with no major incidents, something their other teachers couldn't boast.

Kankuro's first idea was to report to Gaara about his new team. He quickly made his way up the his brother's office. When he arrived, he simply walked in, as was his custom. Instead of seeing his brother working diligently at his desk, he found him laying across a small couch taking a nap. "Gaara," he said quietly, not trying to startle his brother.

"Can it wait? I'm tired."

"I just wanted to report on my team, don't worry. Why are you so tired?"

"I was working on a new technique."

"Fine, I'll come back later."

Gaara was glad to hear his brother leave. He had proposed the idea to him first and Kankuro had been strongly against it. _"I had to do it though,"_ he thought, _"I need to be stronger... we need to be stronger. There must be strength in the Sand."_

**A/N: Hope you like this one. It was admittedly hard to write, not really sure why. I do think I'll have some fun with Kankuro and his new team. I'll probably introduce at least one more character from the Sand, but I'm going to keep it limited to prevent an overload. Lemme know what you think, reviews are appreciated.**


	7. Preparing for the Worst, Hoping for the

Preparing for the Worst, Hoping for the Best

"Pervy Sage, you better not start ogling her when she comes in! Otherwise I'll tell Tsunade..."

"Okay already. I'm not going to ogle your girlfriend." _"I can't afford to. Why'd I have to get drunk that night."_ Jiraiya still cursed the fact that he'd accidentally told Naruto about the time he'd spied on Tsunade when they were younger.

Naruto then sprinted to the front door of Jiraiya's apartment, Naruto's had quickly proven too small, and flung open the door. He was about to hug the girl standing in front of him until he noticed it was Sakura. Naruto pulled back and paused for a moment. "What are you doing here Sakura?"

She stood for moment actually fidgeting. "I... I came to see Sasuke."

"You know I can't..."

"I have a note from Tsunade. She gave me permission." Sakura quickly produced a note and handed it to Naruto.

The orange ninja quickly scanned the note. "Come on in. I'll have to show it to the Pervy Sage first, though." Naruto walked back into Jiraiya's room, where the Sanin was currently located and showed him the note. After a quick nod, he walked back into the main room. "Its okay for you to see him. His room is that one," he said as he pointed to Sasuke's room.

Sakura quickly made her way to Sasuke's room while Naruto returned to sitting on a couch in the living room. She knocked tentatively on the door when she reached it. She'd pictured being reunited with Sasuke for almost three years, but now she was nervous.

"_Come on, you've been waiting for this. We've got this! Cha!" _Inner Sakura made a timely appearance, fortifying Sakura's will.

"Come in."

Sakura's heart skipped a beat when she heard Sasuke's voice. She then quietly made her way into his room. "Hi Sasuke."

Sasuke looked up from where he was sitting on his bed. Though he wasn't confined to his room, he generally sat in there most of the day. He still had trouble facing Naruto. The last three times he'd met his friend he'd tried to kill him, once he'd nearly succeeded. Now Sakura was here. He'd always taken her for granted. "Hello Sakura."

Sakura mentally kicked herself as he looked at her. She couldn't think of anything to say to continue the conversation. She highly doubted that he'd want to talk about his time with Orochimaru. She was relieved when he rescued her from having to direct the conversation.

"I heard you've gotten much stronger... and that you trained with Tsunade."

"Yeah, she's a slave driver. She had me working from sunup to sundown. If I wasn't doing combat training, I was working on a new medical technique. But it was all worth it." She silently hoped that he had another question for her, because she still couldn't think of anything to talk about. After a brief pause, she came up with an idea. "Would you like to go on a walk... if we could convince Jiraiya and Naruto to come with us?"

"No," he said reluctantly. When he saw her face sink, he clarified. "Its not that I don't want to, I just get a lot of odd looks now." In an odd reversal of roles, it was now Sasuke, not Naruto, who received odd looks when they were out in the town.

"Okay... well..."

777777777777

Naruto, yet again, bolted to the door when he heard a knock. As he opened the door, he smiled, it was Hinata. "Hey Hinata... Why are you in ninja gear?"

"The Hokage sent me to get you. We've been assigned a mission with Kiba and Shino. You need to get your gear."

Naruto quickly shifted into ninja mode. He did his best to push his anger to the back of his mind. This wasn't the first date with Hinata that had been messed up by a mission. He just had to remember that it wasn't personal. "Gimme a minute and I'll be ready. Go ahead and sit down."

777777777777

Sasuke finally broke the awkward silence as he and Sakura watched Naruto and Hinata rush out the door. "I see Naruto has finally gotten over his crush on you," Sasuke said with a laugh.

"Hehe, yeah, he and Hinata got together after he got back. She finally got over being nervous around him and that seemed to finally catch his attention."

"Is he still a knuckle-head?"

"He's not so bad anymore. He's grown up quite a bit."

"Good, he needed to. I saw how powerful he's become. That's probably part of the reason he's helping guard me. Not that they need two of them..."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that he's a lot stronger than me. I didn't learn much with Orochimaru... and I was a fool to think he would have taught me anything."

"Well... you're back now. We'll help you Sasuke," Sakura said, trying to reassure her teammate.

"Thanks."

777777777777

Jiraiya stood off to the side of the door listening to the the room's occupants talk. Sasuke was definitely coming around. Jiraiya felt confident that they could probably release him soon. Of course, he'd have to have a talk with Tsunade before that could happen.

777777777777

Naruto and Hinata walked into Tsunade's office to find a few more people than they expected. The rest of the Konoha 11, save Sakura, were in the room. There were also many Jounin and some ANBU as well. Needless to say, the room was cramped.

"Good, I see everyone is here," Tsunade said. "As you know, the Chuunin exams are starting next week. This would naturally constitute a need for added security, but that goes double for this time. Now that we have Sasuke back, Orochimaru will be more likely to strike, if for no other reason than to capture Sasuke. Along with this, there is a group of people known as the Akatsuki who have targeted Naruto for capture. So, you see the danger the village is in." Tsunade reached for some papers on her desk. "Teams will be as follows. Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, and Shino will be Scout 1, Shino leader. You will be backed up by Guard 1, Neji, Tenten, Lee and Chouji, Neji leader." She continued around the room giving assignments to all present. "Ibiki, you'll be Test 1 administrator, Anko, Test 2, Shikamaru, Test 3."

Shikamaru sighed. It had become somewhat of a tradition for him to administer test three when the exams were in the Leaf Village. He could easily pacify any participant who was unwilling to stop fighting.

"Not all of the assignments are immediate. Scout and Guard teams will have days off. Tomorrow we'll also be receiving a contingent of Sand ninja to help with our defenses. If there are no questions, you are all dismissed. Missions begin as early as tomorrow."

Hinata and Naruto joined the others in filing out of the room and were soon back on the street. Before they could leave, though, Kiba flagged them down.

"Naruto! Hinata! Don't go yet, Shino wants to talk with us."

"Okay," Hinata said. Naruto grimaced and growled a little.

The two ninja followed Kiba and Akamaru to where Shino was standing. Their team leader adjusted his glasses before he began speaking. "We've been assigned tomorrow. Our orders are to scout our area, naturally. If we come across any Sound ninja, we're to call for backup, Neji's team, before we engage. The Hokage wants prisoners. If we come across any of these Akatsuki we're ordered to flee. We're to file a report directly with the Hokage."

"What?" Naruto exclaimed. "I'm not running from anyone!" Naruto then proceeded to rant about how much better he was than any of the Akatsuki.

Shino stared at Naruto while he ranted. He waited for Naruto to finish, not even trying to talk over the blond. "You will follow the instructions set forth for the mission." He then moved in for the kill. "You say you want to be Hokage, will you expect everyone to follow your orders?"

"Of course..." Naruto's face dropped when he saw the trap Shino had led him into.

Kiba began snickering, earning him a glare from not only Naruto, but Shino and Hinata.

"I suggest everyone get some rest we're supposed to be on station at 8 am. Dismissed."

777777777777

Itachi and Kisame stood on a ridge within view of Itachi's old village. The sight of it brought back the memories of disgust he'd felt for his clan. They'd been so self-important. They had assumed that because of their Sharingan that they were all powerful. They had no clue what power really was, and he had shown them that. He'd shown them that power required that you have some degree of natural talent, something none of them possessed.

"So, when are we going to get him?" Kisame asked from next to him.

"We aren't."

"But he wants the Nine-tailed Fox."

"Then he can come and get it. There's too much power concentrated here. This village is much more powerful than the Sand Village. We'll just bide our time. We can track him now and wait for our opportunity."

"Fine, but this is on you Itachi."

777777777777

Naruto and Hinata slowly made their way down the main street of the village. As they did, the number of foreign Genin that were currently in the village became readily apparent. Naruto noticed a few from the Grass Village. It sent a bit of a chill down his spine, reminding him of when he'd been forced to fight Orochimaru, who at that time had been disguised as a Grass kunoichi. But his memories quickly brightened as he remembered the rest of the exam and how he'd beaten both Kiba and Neji. "Remember our first Chuunin exam?" He asked Hinata cheerfully.

"Yes..." She mentally smacked herself for letting a bit of her old nervousness shine through.

Naruto joined her in the mental beat-down. _"Duh, you idiot. She almost died in her fight with Neji during that exam."_

"_Smooth move," _the fox said.

Naruto chose to ignore his tenant. He'd yet to really win a fight with the fox, this time wouldn't likely be any different. He quickly chose to change the subject. "Hey, you want to go see a movie?" He asked as they approached the village's main movie theater. _"I just hope she doesn't want to see some mushy, chick movie."_

"Sure Naruto. That would be great. I was hoping to see _Endless Love_," she said, smiling at the poster as they reached the theater.

Naruto blanched as he heard her say what movie she wanted to see, luckily she hadn't seen his face. "That would be great," Naruto said, doing his best to sound convincing. While doing so, he looked longingly at the poster for _Brotherhood of the Sword_. He quickly walked up to the ticket booth. "Two for endless love." He managed to say it with a straight face.

"Here you go."

"_Have fun lover boy..."_

"_Shut up you stupid fox."_

777777777777

This was not a good day for Kin. Though, no day when you have 8 people of at least Chuunin level on your trail is a good day. At the moment she couldn't see them, but she knew they were there. She had to get her report to Orochimaru somehow, the Leaf Village was a fortress. Apparently, Orochimaru's former teammate took the threat of the Sound Village very seriously, defenses were much tighter than they had been under the Third. _"Shit, another one of those arrows. This is going to hurt."_ Kin rotated her body to take the shot in her right shoulder. _"Maybe that would work..."_

Kin reached into her pouch and pulled out one of her smoke bombs. She stopped and slammed the bomb into the ground. Quickly, she bit her thumb and summoned a small snake. She gave it the small, handwritten report she'd made for it to swallow. "Go!" She said quietly. As the smoke cleared, she saw she was completely surrounded.

"We can do this the easy way..." One of the boys began, Neji if she remembered right.

"... or the hard way." The boy who finished it had a ball of chakra ready in his hand. No doubt, that was Naruto, one of the ones Kabuto had warned her about. Unfortunately, Kabuto's information was quite dated.

"_I've got to make sure the snake has time to get out of range." _Kin sprung forward toward the girl in front of her, the one with the funny eyes.

"Chakra archery!"

Kin dropped to the ground, her legs and arms useless. _"Damn, that was pathetic! I can't even kill myself now."_

"All right, Kiba take Lee and Choji, Shino will come with me and Tenten. Naruto and Hinata will secure the prisoner and take her back to Ibiki."

"Right!"

Kin flinched. She'd heard that name before... _"Oh no, its that guy. The proctor from her the Chuunin Exam! He was a psycho!"_

777777777777

Kin looked around, trying to get her bearings again. She didn't remember exactly where she was anymore. Her most current 'memory' had her out in the middle of a field. She'd now gone through so many of these 'memories' that she no longer knew what was real and what wasn't. All she knew is she hadn't had sleep in who knows how long. The memory of her being captured seemed to surface every so often, but she couldn't be sure anymore.

As Kin drifted in and out, Morino Ibiki was a constant. Granted she didn't see him, but he was always watching. The leader of the Interrogation section was taking personal command of this session. He had to admit the girl was strong, it had taken three days of sleep deprivation and a barrage of different genjutsu to push her to the breaking point. Now was time for the disgusting part. "In a few minutes place her under another genjutsu, plant the memory we want."

"Yes sir," said a man in a hawk mask. The man was quite gifted with genjutsu.

"_With more work he may even give Kurenai a run for her money."_ He watched as the girl drifted into what he hoped would be the final genjutsu. As she did, the guards quickly moved into the room and removed the restraints from the girl and got her standing. At a signal from the ANBU doing the genjutsu Ibiki transformed himself into Orochimaru. He felt disgusting as he walked into the room, but it had to be done. _"Too bad they hadn't been able to capture that snake."_

"Lord Orochimaru," Kin said, bowing slightly.

"You've done well Kin. What news do you bring of the Leaf Village?"

"Sir, the village is too secure for us to make an assault of any size. There are constant, heavy patrols. They've also received aid from the Sand Village in securing their village during the Chuunin Exams."

"Is that all?"

"Yes my Lord. I would never omit..."

Ibiki dropped his charade. He'd have to shower for at least a week to get the slimy feeling off his skin. "Get her some food and let her have some sleep. We've got what we need. I'll make the report to the Hokage myself." _"Seems like we've caught a break... with this one."_

777777777777

Orochimaru scowled at the report he was reading. He had taught the Leaf Village too thorough a lesson apparently. Their Chuunin were undergoing intensive training under Jiraiya. He may not like his old teammate, but he would no doubt train them well. On top of that, they were extremely vigilant, especially in light of Sasuke's failed attack. _"Maybe I should have honestly trained the boy... No, he would have become too much of a threat... and he would have likely run off after his brother."_

Orochimaru sat thinking things over. He had to get Sasuke back, he needed the boy's body. He also needed the Uchiha scrolls. But how to get them if he couldn't get into the village. He'd have to wait. He smashed his hand on the table, he didn't want to wait, this body was far inferior to Sasuke's. He'd just have to put Kabuto on the job. Apparently Kin wasn't quite up to it. Speaking of which, he'd need to start training his own ninja harder. His overall goal was still to destroy that wretched village and he couldn't do that with weak ninja.


	8. Formation of the Axis

Formation of the Axis

Orochimaru smiled as Kabuto walked into his main chamber of his current base. Like most of his bases, this one was underground. Though he didn't like to admit it, Orochimaru didn't have enough power to stand out in the open, but he hoped to change that soon.

The fact that Kabuto was walking into the chamber of his own accord meant that he was successful. Any time he failed his master he would generally try to sneak in and hide, as though he could. "Well Kabuto, I trust you were successful?"

"Yes, Lord Orochimaru. I must say, though, that your dealings in the past have made many of the other villages nervous about doing business with you."

"Well then, I see that it wasn't enough to fully dissuade them."

"No, the Leaf Village still has many people who are jealous of its power, people who would like to take their place."

Orochimaru stood up, the smile on his face increasing. He noted that Kabuto seemed a little disquieted by the smile. Though he was a loyal servant, he had reason to believe that he was still unnerved by him. Not that it was a bad thing, it kept him in line. "Come Kabuto, I want you to help me inspect the trainees."

The two rouge ninjas left the room and walked down a corridor toward the training room. Orochimaru turned into the room. The door he had gone through put him on the second level on an observation platform. The training room was massive, allowing for at least ten simultaneous matches. It was currently in use. Orochimaru took a moment to look over his men. Many were new recruits, either from his village or rogue ninja with actual experience. "Kabuto I want you to challenge that one right there to a match," he said, pointing to a promising looking recruit. He then descended to the training floor. Orochimaru's true reason for entering the training room became quickly apparent when he headed directly toward a group of trainees separated from the rest. He smiled as their leader came walking toward him. "Well Daisuke is the team developing on schedule?"

"Ahead of schedule, My Lord. We should be prepared a month before we had planned." The rouge Sand ninja smiled. His team, Alpha Team, was the trump card of the Hidden Sound Village.

"Good, but I warn you, you must perform flawlessly or you'll wish you'd never been born." Orochimaru smiled as the large man blanched. He was easily six and a half feet tall. He wore both his scratched out Sand hitai-ate along with his Sound one. His eyes were pale, much like the Hyuugas, but his possessed a gray iris.

"We will not fail you my Lord." Daisuke quickly turned to his teammates. "Okay, we're going to start again from the beginning... no mistakes."

888888888888

Orochimaru carefully reviewed his plan as he walked toward the Raikage's mansion. He needed to convince the Raikage to join him in his plan to destroy the Leaf Village. Though he had a powerful force under his own control, he needed the power of a major hidden village to ensure the success of his plan. This didn't mean he was nervous, far from it. This plan was even better than the one he had concocted with the Sand Village. This plan wasn't dependent on a mentally unstable boy for its success.

"Welcome Orochimaru, the Raikage will see you directly," said the guard as Orochimaru reached the door.

The guard led him through the mansion, past a number of other guards. Orochimaru could tell that this was intentional, and that it was designed to try to keep him on his best behavior. Unfortunately for them, this didn't scare him in the least. He made sure to look supremely confident as he walked into the Raikage's chamber.

"Well, well, how times have changed. I remember fighting in a battle against the Leaf Village when you were against me. Now, you come to me to ask my help in destroying it. How times change things," the Raikage said from the platform he was seated on. He stood from his throne as Orochimaru came to a stop.

"It is amazing how time changes us."

"I have discussed things with my aides. They seem to think I should join you, but I want to hear of your plan first. If I recall correctly, you tried this before."

"Yes... I did. I had allied myself with the Sand Village. I believed that their ninja were strong, especially the one who is now their Kazekage. But I was wrong, the boy was too unstable and their ninja proved no match for the Leaf shinobi. But this plan is quite different."

"I see. Well, before we start, I want to give you our terms for this alliance. If they seem to steep, there is no reason for us to continue discussion. As you know, my village tried to gain posession of the Byakugan many years ago but failed. You will help us in seizing one of the members of the main Hyuuga household. I also demand fifty percent of anything seized if the attack is successful. Are those terms acceptable?"

"Yes, they are just fine."

"Good, then let us talk about your plan."

888888888888

Orochimaru walked toward his personal guards with a smile on his face. After telling the Raikage the full plan, the man had eagerly agreed to ally himself with the Sound Village. He was actually considering canceling his trip to the Grass Village. _"No, I will go. There's no reason to deny them a chance to take revenge on the Leaf Village as well."_

"I trust things went well, my Lord?" Kabuto asked.

"Quite, now let's be off. We don't want to keep another potential ally waiting."

888888888888

"Well, now comes the matter of our payment. First, we'll need a guarantee of territory. We've long been trying to seize the territory that borders us, but have been unsuccessful. Second, we want Kakashi Hatake. Alive if possible. He's caused us a great deal of pain, I was hoping to return the favor."

"That is acceptable," Orochimaru said to the Kusakage, though no one outside the village acknowledged his Kage status, he was given the title within his village. "I will need you to join myself and the Raikage for a final planning session once I have modified my plan to fit all of our needs. I will send for you then."

888888888888

Sai watched carefully as Orochimaru and his bodyguards walked out of the Hidden Grass Village. Whatever they had been there for, it likely wasn't good for them. He turned back to his team who stared at him with their masked faces. "You two, keep tailing Orochimaru and his men. Keep a distance, don't let them know they're being followed. You'll need to report back to the Hokage and warn that the village could be in great danger," he said pointing toward the final member of his team.

"Right," they said, springing into action.

Sai then removed his mask and began rummaging through the pack he was carrying. He needed civilian clothes, at least until he could take over a Grass ninja's identity.

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Don't worry, the attack will come soon. I just started including Sai, because I'm just getting to the part in the anime where he gets added in. Let me know what you guys think.**


	9. The Action

The Action

"Okay, Naruto you're up next," Kurenai said as she watched Hinata walk off. She'd have to make a point of talking to the girl when they were done here. Like most Hyuugas, she had no talent for genjutsu. For that matter, few of the Chuunin in the room had a talent for it. Shikamaru seemed to have rudimentary abilities, Ino definitely had potential as well. The most successful, and scary, so far had been Sakura. Kurenai had spent the better part of five minutes getting chased around her own head by a screaming version of the girl, she honestly still had a headache. _"Well, this one shouldn't be too bad."_

"All right Naruto, I know you've never shown much talent for genjutsu, but let's see if we were wrong."

Naruto sighed, he knew she was right. He'd managed to create a few flimsy genjutsus while in the academy, but they were so weak, it wasn't worth his effort to pursue genjutsu. "Here goes." As Naruto reached the final hand signal, he heard Kyuubi in the back of his head.

"_See how she likes this," _the demon said.

999999999999

Kurenai was surprised when the world around her mutated. The ground in the mindscape she was now in was flaming. It was causing her mental body pain, she began running to try to find somewhere to escape the flames. Suddenly, a set of evil eyes appeared in front of her. It took her only a moment to figure out whose eyes those were and what was happening. She quickly pulled herself together and prepared to perform the release jutsu. _"Release."_

She looked around her and was dismayed to see it had no effect. As she sat planning her next move, she noticed a fluctuation in the mindscape. _"Release."_

9999999999

Kurenai was relieved when she saw the world come back into focus around her. "Next," she said simply. She was happy to see that Naruto took the cue and simply joined the rest of the Chuunin. It was only moments before Naruto was having one of his increasingly frequent conversations with the Kyuubi.

9999999999

"_What the hell was that you dumb furball?"_

"_Well... you needed a genjutsu... you have no talent for it... so I loaned you one of my favorites," _said the fox in a matter of fact tone.

Naruto immediately began screaming a stream of obscenities at his unwanted tenant. After he'd calmed down a while, he noticed the now ever-present fed smoke streaming out from the bars and the fact that the fox was noticeably smaller. _"What the hell is going on? How come you're smaller?"_

"_If I had to guess, I'd say this is what the fourth Hokage intended. My chakra is being absorbed by you as you're doing more intense training. Though I can't break free, it seems a bit easier for me to communicate with you as well as slip in a jab or helping hand every now and then."_

"_Get this straight fox... you ever pull a stunt like that again and I'll find a way to kick your ass!"_

"_Oh... I'm shaking."_

9999999999

"Well Sasuke," Kakashi said, "Orochimaru did do one good thing for you. Your chakra reserves are quite impressive, as is your ability to draw it up. You definitely have the power to use the Mangekyo Sharingan, but that's not all of it."

"What else does it take?" Sasuke asked.

"You have to give something up, something important to you. Only then can you unlock that power. Your brother chose to give up his one close friendship."

"What did you give up?"

"That's none of your business," Kakashi said, slightly defensively. "You should think hard about this." Kakashi paused for a moment. "But I will say this. If you lift a finger to harm Naruto or Sakura, you'll wish that Anko was the first one to get to you." With that, Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Sasuke stood transfixed for a moment, his mind racing. _"What could or should he_ _give up? He could give up his friendships. He could give up his desire to restart his clan. He could give up his... vengence."_ Sasuke was finally able to move again, and made his way back into his house. They'd finally allowed him to live on his own again and to stay in his house. "What should I do?" He asked rhetorically.

9999999999

For the first time in his ninja life, Sai was considering his lack of emotion more of a hindrance than a help. He needed to be able to impersonate one of the top Grass ninja in order to get the information he was looking for. Unfortunately, most seemed to be, to some degree, emotional people. This was a frustrating position for Sai. Though he'd never come across a jutsu he couldn't perform, there was no way for him to successfully simulate emotions. It took him a week to find a suitable target. The man was quiet and seemed to generally keep a passive stare on his face, this was something Sai could handle. As a bonus, the man was only a second for the Grass equivalent of the ANBU, therefore he wouldn't likely have to speak in a meeting.

That night, Sai got into position to strike and waited for his target to arrive. As the man fell asleep, Sai drew two clones of himself and quickly sent them to subdue the sleeping Grass ninja. The two clones crept up on their target. One slid its hand over the man's mouth while the other snapped his neck. _"If they're plotting with Orochimaru, they're my enemy. No reason to leave him alive if that's the case." _Sai quickly dispelled one of the clones and ordered the other to transform into the man he'd just killed. He then sat and waited for dawn.

9999999999

Hinata was a little nervous as she and Naruto made their way to Ichiraku's for lunch. That morning her father had asked her to invite Naruto over for dinner. Neji was supposed to invite Tenten over that night as well, but it still made her nervous. She'd never had Naruto over, though things were better with her father, she got this odd feeling like she'd be spied on if she brought Naruto over. "Naruto..."

"What's up Hinata?"

"My father wanted me to invite you over for dinner. Neji and Tenten will be there too. He wants to get to know you."

"Okay. Would I be hoping to much for ramen?"

"Yes," she said apologetically. "I think he means for it to be a formal thing. I doubt he'll consider ramen formal enough."

"Formal?!" Naruto yelled. "I've never been to a formal dinner. No one's ever invited me to anything like that!" Naruto was panicking a bit. He didn't want to make an ass of himself in front of Hiashi Hyuuga. Mainly, because he was Hinata's father, but there was also the fact that he was one of the most powerful and respected men in the village.

"Don't worry Naruto. I'll teach you everything you need to know." She smiled as this seemed to calm Naruto down. "We'll also need to get you some formal robes."

"Okay... can they be orange?"

9999999999

Kurenai had handled one issue brought on by her genjutsu test, she'd talked to Hinata and made sure that she wasn't beating herself up because she wasn't a genjutsu master. Now she had to find out about Naruto, and the best way to do that was talk to Jiraiya. As she knocked on the lecher's door, she braced herself.

"Who is i... woah!" Jiraiya said as he opened the door. "I must have done something right."

"Actually no... you neglected to mention something. Can I come in?"

Jiraiya snapped back to some degree of seriousness when he heard her tone. "Come in, have a seat." He followed her into the living room of his apartment. He scurried on ahead of her when he remembered his writing and some of his research was sprawled over the table. He quickly picked it up and stashed it. _"No one gets any sneak peaks."_

"What the hell is going on with Naruto? We were doing a genjutsu test the other day, when you were gone. Naruto himself wasn't capable of producing one, but the Kyuubi did it for him."

"Hmmm..." Jiraiya sat and considered the situation for a moment. "Well, I don't think there's anything to worry about. The seal is doing exactly what it should. As Naruto is getting older, his and the fox's chakra are merging."

"Are you sure he can control it?"

"Well, it appears you're unharmed. It was likely just a slip."

"Shouldn't we let everyone else know what's happening?"

"It probably is a good idea. We'll go see Tsunade tomorrow."

9999999999

Tsunade sat with Jiraiya and Kurenai, waiting for the rest of the people she'd summoned to arrive. This was sure to make the morning interesting. Jiraiya now seemed a bit wary about Naruto being put on a team without an experienced Jounin to keep an eye on him. Her real headache, though, would be Danzou. It didn't take a genius to see that he had absolutely no love for the boy. If he had his way, Naruto would be at least under permanent lock-down, if he wasn't banished. But as the leader of the ANBU, he had to be consulted. It wasn't long before everyone she'd summoned had arrived, luckily Danzou arrived last.

"What's the meaning of this?" Danzou asked as he made his way into the room.

"I brought you all here to give a report on Naruto," Tsundade said, then braced herself immediately for Danzou's outburst.

"What?! How many times have I said it? That boy should be locked up!"

"Out of the question!" Tsunade said, cutting the rant short. "I'll let Jiraiya explain the situation."

"As we all know, Naruto holds the Kyuubi inside him. We also know that he is capable of drawing on the fox's power when necessary. I believe that was only the first stage of the the Fourth Hokage's plan. I believe that Naruto's and the fox's chakra are beginning to meld. Once that happens, the fox will actually be defeated. At this point, though, Naruto has not fully adjusted to these changes. This is giving the fox openings into Naruto's body. Since most people here are around Naruto to some degree I thought I should warn you all."

"How did you find this out?" Asuma asked.

"I was the one who discovered it," Kurenai stated. "When I was working with them on Genjutsu, the fox trapped me in a Genjutsu when Naruto attempted to put me into one. I don't think I could have gotten out, but Naruto quickly supressed the jutsu and helped to free me."

"He's a menace."

"Well, it seems to me like he has this mostly under control. I don't see the danger," Kakashi said, looking over the top of his book.

"Indeed, the Power of Youth flows quite vigorously through Naruto. He would never give the fox control."

"I agree. There is one instance where Naruto could become a liability though. When he becomes overly emotional, especially if he becomes angry, he tends to channel too much of the fox's chakra. But I've devised a remedy for that," Jiraiya said, producing a paper with a seal on it. "In these situations I spoke of, Naruto will begin to sprout chakra tails. The first one isn't an issue, but you have to stop him before he sprouts the second."

"That's it! I insist you lock that menace up!"

"Like I said, not going to happen."

"Then I insist that an ANBU be place on any team he is a member of, in order to restrain him if necessary."

"Fine, we'll discuss this later."

"Well, I guess that's all. You're all dismissed." Tsunade waited for everyone to leave the room before she put her head down on the desk. She really did have a headache. She gathered some chakra in her hand and quickly put an end to the headache. She then opened her bottom desk drawer and produced a bottle of sake and a glass. _"I earned this."_

9999999999

Sai listened carefully to his clones report. He was quite pleased with the selection he had made. The man had little to do with the actual planning of the operation, but he was involved in most of the planning sessions. The way things looked, this operation wasn't a small one. A large portion of the Grass Village's resources were being dedicated to this operation. Not that Sai could blame them. The land they stood to gain from the success of this mission would greatly increase their power. But that didn't mean Sai was going to sit around and let it happen. Sai quickly wrote a report on his scroll and addressed it to Danzou. He then sneaked outside and performed a jutsu to send the report to him. Sai then sneaked back inside. He then began packing up his stuff, the next day the leaders and the shinobi assigned to take part in the mission were supposed to depart to rendezvous with the Sound and Cloud ninja.

9999999999

"Can you talk about anything other than fighting?" Ino screamed at Kiba.

"Sorry! What would you like to talk about? I haven't heard you come up with any great ideas!" Though it was frustrating, Kiba actually enjoyed arguing with Ino, at least a little.

"How about you tell me about your family."

Kiba had been prepared to laugh when she couldn't come up with anything, so he was thrown a little off guard. "Alright, well first off we have Akamaru. He's like my brother. As you know, my clan uses either dogs or wolves as part of our jutsu. But we consider them family. Then there's my mom..."

Ino was happy just to get off the topic of jutsu. If anything, she might get some sort of understanding by learning about his family.

9999999999

Neji grimaced as he saw a shopkeeper smirking at him. Though, the idea of an ANBU being mushy or human in any way would likely have made him smirk before he became one. Neji glanced back at the shopkeeper and moved closer to Tenten as they walked back toward her apartment. The shopkeeper seemed to get the idea and stopped staring. It wasn't long before they reached the building her where her apartment was located. "Tenten, I've been asked to invite you to dinner at my house. My uncle wants to meet you and Naruto." Like Hinata, Neji tended to steer Tenten away from the Hyuuga residence.

"Okay, it will be nice to finally get to meet him."

"I'm sorry this hasn't happened sooner. Its just hard to have any privacy in my house." Neji straightened himself up. "Well, I must be leaving," he said formally. He then leaned forward, intending to give Tenten a kiss on the cheek. Unfortunately, and fortunately, Tenten moved to intercept his lips with her own. Neji, for his part, reacted as though that had been his plan all along. He kept the kiss brief and gave her one of his rare smiles before turning and leaving.

Tenten did a rather raucous victory dance in her head as she watched him leave. _"An invite to his house and a kiss!"_ After "regaining" her composure, she ran straight off to find Sakura and Ino, she had to tell someone about her victory.

9999999999

Danzou looked over the list of people he had decided were candidates for looking after the demon container. It wasn't that he needed to, this was probably the tenth time he'd looked at it in the past hour, but it somehow reassured him that he had the upper hand. Even though he was looking at the list, he had his mind made up, Sai would be a suitable candidate. He would be easy enough to sell, and though it would mean loosing a valuable team member, this took precedence.

As he placed the paper down, he noticed a small, animated animal had made its way onto his desk, one of Sai's. If he was a weaker man, he would have thought he was hallucinating, because he had just been thinking on the said agent. As he focused on it, the creature seemed to dissolve. The lines settled out across a piece of paper, in Sai's handwriting.

_My team tracked Orochimaru to the Village Hidden in the Grass. He had a meeting there with their leader. The Grass Village has agreed to take part in an attack on our village with the help of the Sound and Cloud Villages. I have yet to ascertain all of the plans. They are departing tomorrow to meet with Orochimaru and the Raikage to make their final plans. I will continue to follow them and make a report as soon as possible._

Danzou nearly jumped out of his chair. The date put their leaving at two days ago. Though they were unlikely to have even reached the Land of Sound yet, it didn't give them too much time to devise a way to defend against the attack. He picked up the note and placed it in one of his pockets before heading directly to the Hokage's office.

9999999999

"No Naruto! You can't do that!" Hinata watched as Naruto, yet again, basically swallowed the food he was supposed to be eating slowly.

"Sorry," he replied, genuinely sorry.

"Okay, let's try again," Hinata said, placing another tray in front of him. "Watch first." Hinata picked up her food and placed it in her mouth, chewing a it a few times before she swallowed.

Naruto followed suit. He picked up the food on his plate and did his best to emulate Hinata. When he was done, he gave her a questioning look.

"That was good. Now try to make it through the whole plate doing that." She watched with some trepidation, as Naruto began eating again. This time, though, his speed didn't increase as he went. "Good, now we just have to have you remember to do it that way the first time."

Naruto folded in arms in frustration. "There are so many rules. Use all proper names. Sit like this. Eat like this. Don't eat too fast. Don't eat too slow. I just don't see how you do it."

"You're starting to get that hang of it. Don't worry Naruto. Just think of it as training. You'll need to know how to act at a formal dinner when you become Hokage."

Naruto smiled. "You're right. Thanks for the help." He then paused for a moment. "Could we call it quits now and I make us some ramen?"

9999999999

Danzo burst into the Hokage's office, Shizune hot on his trail. He would have smiled at catching Tsunade napping, but this was too serious. "I have a report from one of my ANBU that you must read."

"Let me see it," Tsunade replied, quickly kicking into full gear. She could tell this was serious since Danzo hadn't made a snappy comment after catching her taking a nap. As she read the note she learned why. "This is serious."

"We should strike now and hit them before they hit us."

"No."

"What do you mean no?"

"I mean we'd have to find them and strike them on their own turf at a forward base, a fortified position where they'd see us coming. No, we turn their attack around on them. We know its coming, and your man should be able to get us the plans and the time of the assault. We wait for them to strike and hit them when they least expect it, when they're hitting us."

Danzo sat and listened in awe. He knew that Tsunade could be ruthless, but this sounded down right diabolical. Now it was time to get a priceless look, he'd have to cherish this memory. "You know, you're right."

Tsunade could hardly believe what she'd just heard. Danzo agreed with her on something. She had yet to have a conversation with the man where they had agreed on anything. She quickly regained her composure. "I'm glad you see it my way. I think that means we have some planning to do."

9999999999

Shikamaru smirked as he arrived at Temari's door. She and Kankuro had been left in the Leaf Village, along with their teams for a few weeks after the Chuunin exams, mainly because Temari still had some consulting work to do. Now, though they were slated to leave, they were going to have to stay longer to take part in a joint training exercise. He'd been ordered to deliver the news, a job he would enjoy for two reasons. First, she was going to have to stay around him. He'd finally decided to stop denying that he liked her, though it didn't mean he was going to make a move. Second, the look on her face when she found out she'd have to stay longer would be priceless. He finally made it to her door and rapped on it a few times.

"Who is it?" Temari said, as she walked to the door. She was greeted by silence. That meant one person, Shikamaru. "Come in," she said as she opened the door.

Shikamaru positioned himself close to the door, just in case she became violent. "I'd stop packing if I were you."

"Why?"

"I was told to tell you you'll be staying another few weeks. Something about a joint training exercise."

Temari froze. "What? This isn't fair. I just want to get home."

"Sorry, you picked the wrong line of work to do what you want," Shikamaru said in a blunt, yet bored, tone.

She turned like she was going to be mad at him, but decided to try to turn it around on him. "Fine, you're taking me to get dinner then. I do need an escort. Oh, and it better be somewhere nice."

"Whatever. I'll come by at six," he said, trying to play it off. He then turned around and promptly left.

"_You think I don't see it."_ Temari thought. _"I'll get you to admit it."_ She then began putting her stuff back. _"Well, better tell Kankuro and the others."_

9999999999

Sai was as close as he could come to giddy. It had taken him a couple days, but his clone had just delivered a report to him detailing the battle plans and the date of the operation. It was like it had been gift wrapped for him. What's more, he should have time to get the report to the leaf village in time for them to prepare. He quickly wrote the report on his scroll and sent it off to Danzou. Now, it was time to wait and see if he would receive word back from his leader. Otherwise, he'd act on his own when the time came.

9999999999

Naruto was ignoring the odd looks he was getting as he walked toward the Hyuuga Compound. Not that he could necessarily blame them, no one had ever seen him in formal robes before. It had been enough of a shock for the people of the village when he'd come back in a new outfit.

"Naruto!"

Naruto stopped and turned around as Sakura ran up beside him.

"What are you all dressed up for?"

"I'm eating at the Hyuuga's tonight. Lord Hiashi's insistence." He smiled, noting that Hinata's training had managed to stick.

"Have you talked to Sasuke lately? No one has seen him in days. I've tried going by his house, but I never get a response."

"Sorry, I haven't talked to him much since he's come back. I still awkward around me."

"Oh," she responded, a bit disconcerted. "Well, I'm going over there now. Maybe I'll finally get to see him."

"Well, good luck." Naruto then quickened his pace a little to make up for lost time. If what Hinata said was true, her father hated tardiness.

At his quickened pace, it wasn't long before Naruto had joined Tenten in front of the Hyuuga compound. "Hey Tenten."

"Hi Naruto." Tenten did a bit of a double-take. "Sorry to gawk. I've just never seen you in formal robes."

"You're not the only one. Well, I guess we should probably make our way in. Don't want to be late."

9999999999

Daisuke looked around the Leaf Village like you normal tourist as he made his way to his designated point. How they hadn't destroyed this village in the first assault dumbfounded him. They were weak. Even now, after that, there was only minimal military presence guarding this village. This time they would succeed for sure. He made his way to a small square and took a seat at a small café. He need to remain unnoticed until it was time for the operation to begin.

9999999999

Sakura knocked at the outer door to the Uchiha estate. She'd been doing so for a week without any results. But, even though she had no reason to believe that this time would be any different, she had to try. After getting no response, she tried again. _"Maybe he just didn't hear the knocking." _She used the tired justification each time she knocked and got no response. Like always, there was no response. _"One more time won't hurt."_ Sakura banged on the door a final time, this time she added a bit to her knocking. She stood for a few moments and was about to turn when the door opened.

"You're persistant," Sasuke said.

"I just wanted to talk. No one has seen you in so long. But if you want to be alone..." Sakura turned and began walking away.

Sasuke was about to let her leave and close the door, but for some reason, he couldn't. "Would you like to come in?"

Sakura turned her head. "Are you sure?" When Sasuke nodded, she turned around and followed him into his house.

"Would you like something to eat or drink? Some tea maybe?"

"Yes, tea please." Sakura took a seat and watched as Sasuke set up some tea. She was about to speak up, but he beat her to it.

"I'm sorry I locked myself away. I've had a lot to think about and it was better that I did it alone."

"Have you come to a decision?" Sakura asked.

"No."

9999999999

"So, Tenten, do you plan to continue your career as a ninja?"

"Yes, Lord Hiashi, I was planning on remaining in the regular ninja corps and possibly training Genin teams."

"Very good, it sounds like you have given things some thought."

Naruto shifted a little uneasily. The formality of the dinner definitely left him out of his element. Though, thanks to Hinata's teaching, he hadn't made any major screw-ups yet. He watched as Hiashi trained his eyes onto him.

"What about you Naruto? Other than your desire to be Hokage?"

Naruto was nervous. Other than his desire to be Hokage, he'd never given much thought to the future. Come to think of it, he hadn't really thought of how he would set himself up to be Hokage. He needed to ad lib and he needed to do it quick. "I think it would be best if I remained a regular ninja. It will allow people to get to know me better." Naruto smiled inwardly, that was a good save. Though, the more he thought of it, it was probably true.

"You are probably right, Naruto," Hiashi responded. "Many people don't hold a high opinion of you. I believe they are wrong to do so."

Hinata joined Naruto in inwardly smiling. She had had a feeling that her father respected Naruto, otherwise he would never allow her to date him. But for him to have said it directly to Naruto, it meant he definitely approved of her boyfriend. She then gulped slightly, the main course was coming out. Of all her teachings to Naruto, this had been the most difficult for him to handle.

9999999999

Ibiki stood on the wall counting down the time. He was a bit mystified by the plan. It seemed like it was going to be a simple frontal assault. He honestly didn't believe it for a second and had warned all of the ninja on the wall to be prepared for anything. His scouts had been sending him reports of the enemy movements, they seemed to be mostly in position. In all honesty, though, he just wished they would attack and get it over with. Even though every moment they didn't gave them more time to prepare, the waiting was almost unnerving. Especially when he had reservations about their own plan. If he'd had his way, he would have every Jounin and Chuunin in the village on alert. But Tsunade and Danzou had insisted that they needed to maintain the appearance that they weren't expecting an attack. "Any movement?" Ibiki asked the Jounin on watch.

"Nothing sir."

"Well, the time is getting near..." As he finished he began feeling light headed. _"Genjutsu!"_ He quickly released the Genjutsu. "Everyone, its a Genjutsu, the attack has begun."

9999999999

Neji could feel it, something was wrong. Then it hit him all at once. "Genjutsu!" Luckily, it was all he needed to say. His friends and his uncle quickly released the jutsu, Hanabi was another story. It was only a moment later that the alarm sounded.

"We're under attack," Hiashi said calmly. "Hinata, Neji, you two take Naruto and Tenten to the armory. Prepare to defend the village."

9999999999

Daisuke smiled as the people around him began falling to the ground, disoriented. Unfortunately, it seemed that the village ninja weren't being too adversely effected. Maybe this would be a good fight after all.

**A/N: Okay, got a bit to say here. First off, I didn't know that Kin was dead. Oops, well, in my story she's alive. Second, in my story, Danzou is the leader of the ANBU, easy enough to see. Lastly, this chapter is being posted before a 3 ½ month hiatus. I'm going to be at Navy OCS until early March. That will prevent me from being able to write, sorry. I promise that I will continue this story when I am back around a computer. Hope you're enjoying the story so far. I would appreciate your feedback. Until next time.**


End file.
